"Cooper delivers with the unswerving faith of someone who lives and dies by his gut reactions but also with the methodical intelligence of someone who parses those reactions so he can articulate them to the sharpest degree." -- Los Angeles Times "Even when he steps away from the transgressive, taboo subject matter on which he made his reputation, Cooper's outsider perspective and cold, hard, practically violent stare remains hypnotic." -- San Francisco Chronicle "It's a joy to watch Cooper's mind at work." -- Time Out Chicago "The pieces.show facets of Cooper's particular genius you don't see in his formally and thematically controlled fiction.More than anything, Smothered in Hugs will send you out into the world--to the bookstore, record store, art gallery, library--in search of the lost classics Cooper so excitedly introduces." -- Blackbook magazine "The best kind of critic." -- Portland Mercury "There's a stainless steel sheen to Cooper's sentences that is as admirable as anything this side of Didion.

" -- Salon.