...'He is unabashedlyliterary and so unapologetic in his encyclopedic
range that he remains an exemplar of what literature can be: at once
timeless and time bound, universal and elitist, a mix of uncompromising
high seriousness with moments of undiminished slapstick. Homer, Vergil,
Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Proust—not exactly authors one expects to
whiz through or take lightly, but like all works of genius, they are
meant to be read out loud and loved. Nothing would have shocked Proust more than to hear that his work was perceived as difficult or inaccessibly rarefied.'