The thing that [Jennifer] Egan does that no other American writer I can think of pulls off, is to be formally daring without being even a little bit pretentious. She takes her stories in crazy twists down wild alleys, without ever let the book turn into a writing workshop experiment. Whenever I read something that is labeled “formally daring”, on each page I can feel the criticisms from the other graduate students shaping the story, I can feel information being withheld so the author won’t be accused of being pedantic by his fellow Yaddo inmates. And in the end every one of those damn books I read - from Michael Chabon to Josh Ferris - feels to me like it was written with an audience of grad students in mind rather than people who just want to enjoy a story and don’t need it pointing out to you every page how clever it is. The inventiveness of Egan never feels forced or show offy, but always like an author searching for what is the best possible way to express something about a character, with a mind that is nimble enough to range freely trying to answer that question.