Critics were mostly positive in their reviews of the novel. Michiko Kakutani, writing for The New York Times, compared the work to those of W.G. Sebald and said that Cole's failure to "dramatize his alienation ... underscored the ... ad hoc nature of the overall narrative.[1]
In The New Yorker, James Wood praised Cole's inclusion of critical theory as neither a satirical undermining of the academic field or a "[flourish] to exhibit the author's credentials".[7]
The novel was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.[8]
