"A compassionate account of Jane Bowles's life and an engrossing history of her milieu. Dillon seems to have tracked down just about everyone who knew Paul and Jane ... Ned Rorem, Edwin Denby, Tennessee Williams, Peggy Guggenheim, Dione Lewis, and scores of others contribute richly to the tapestry. Paul (Bowles) supported Dillon's effort, and his commentary is especially incisive". -- Laurie Stone, Village Voice

"A thorough biography of Jane Bowles, a book that never cheaply psychoanalyzes its subject but rather presents the woman and her work with sensitivity and admiration.... Grim as (Jane Bowles's) personal story may be, the luminous pages she left behind comprise some of the best American fiction we have. She is far more genuine and original than many other more celebrated writers. Among American women writers she must rank in the small, select company of Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Willa Cather, and Jean Stafford". -- Edmund White, Chicago Tribune

"(This book) has resurrected Jane Bowles and her gorgeously offbeat work for a long time to come. And that is a bright flower to see on what only yesterday was her unmarked grave in a Malaga cemetery". -- Seymour Krim, Washington Post Book World