I keep coming face to face with the notion that creative work does not get done in a vacuum. As much as the romanticized notion of a writer typing away day after day in their tiny attic space might appeal to some, there is a point at which every person who attempts to do creative work must engage with the world and with other people. My introverted self usually wants to stay tucked away in a safe corner; I was always the student who inwardly groaned whenever a teacher assigned a “group project.” But lately I’m feeling more and more led to the kinds of interactions that encourage new ideas and processes, and even to actual collaborations - to working together with other artists and writers in the making of something good. 

What’s not to love about this book? Once again Matthew Quick serves up a group of quirky, oddball characters, the kind of people many of us would hurry by if we were to pass them on the street, and challenges us to change our expectations and accept personality types that are vastly different than those we’ve come to expect as “normal."