"If someone had told me back in graduate school that in 2023 I'd develop a newfound respect for Milton, I would have thought they were nuts, yet Simon's book has made me do exactly that. Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost is an informed and precise look at the poet who made so much of English literature possible, and at why his work is still complex and relevant."--Brian Evenson "At one point in Simon's buoyant, erudite Heaven, Hell, and Paradise Lost , he evokes the Rubin's vase and its ambiguity: Is it a vase or two people looking at one another? While a canny metaphor in the particular context, I thought the tripartite constellation also an apt description of this volume as whole. At times it appears a double portrait--of Milton and the author as thinkers and humans (sometimes inspired, sometimes as stumbling as us all). In other moments it shows the contours of the vase, an accessible and cogent discussion of Paradise Lost's concepts and aims. Taken in total, it's a compelling, deeply personal argument for Milton's epic in the contemporary moment."-- Emily Nemens , author, The Cactus League "With verve and an abundance of erudition, Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost manages to be all at once: a travelogue of a trip to Milton's grave, an insightful return to the classic of all classics, and against all odds, a laugh-out-loud funny book. Simon's light touch and depth of knowledge feels akin to what Geoff Dyer or Janet Malcolm do at their best--and yet his voice is entirely his own.

Read this one! Savor it." -- Daniel Torday , author, The 12th Commandment.