Notes from No Man's Land

"Notes From No Man's Land is the most accomplished book of essays anyone has written or published so far in the 21st century. . . . Unlike all but a handful of the best books I have ever read, it is unimpeachably great."--Salon

"Graywolf Press has reissued Biss' penetrating essay collection--a wise and welcome decision. In a moment when geography seems to have a stranglehold on political sensibilities, Notes from No Man's Land delivers nuanced regional dispatches from New York, California and the Midwest."--Los Angeles Times

"Biss' pairings of ideas, like those of most original thinkers, have the knack of seeming brilliant and obvious at the same time . . . forceful, beautiuful essays."--NPR

"Biss is telling us the story of our country--one we never saw coming."--The Chicago Tribune

"Biss's examination of America's complicated racial heritage offers penetrating insight."--Time Out New York

"Biss's compelling investigation of race and privilege in the United States remains as timely and relevant as ever."--The Brooklyn Rail

"Powerful essays on the nature of identity, national and racial and personal. . . . Containing the music and force of [Biss's] singular thought."--Orion Magazine

This book is as relevant today as it was a decade ago."--Pioneer Press

"[A] wondrous book. . . . [Biss] picks and worries at the idea of race in America--incarceration, education, social welfare. . . . Lyrical she may be, but she is also exhilaratingly bold."--The Spectator (UK)

"Two of the qualities that make Eula Biss's essays in Notes from No Man's Land compelling and beautiful are precision and independence--independence from orthodoxies of the right and left and the conventions of literary essays and their displays of sensibility and sensitivity. And whatever topic she takes up she dissects and analyzes with startling insight that comes from deep reading and original thinking. She's important to this moment, important to opening up what essays can be, important for setting a standard of integrity and insight, and she's also a joy to read."--Rebecca Solnit