British people are smart.

It can be difficult to know what to make of reviews, and maybe even more difficult not to fall into the habit of deciding that critics who like your books are incredibly intelligent and perceptive, and that people who dislike them just don't understand you, or your project, or possibly anything at all. At the risk of walking straight into that trap: Roz Kaveney totally gets me. Or at least she's written an astute review of Live Nude Girl in the Times Literary Supplement of June 19. I can't seem to find it online, but here's a picture of the copy that my friend Ernie faxed to me this afternoon: Not pictured? The triple exclamation point to the left of the arrow. Thanks, Ernie! (Incidentally, all you readers at home can pick up a copy of Ernie's poetry collection here.)

"One of the likable things about Rooney is that she is aware of the physical limitations of actual bodies as well as of the ways in which they can be idealized," Kaveney writes in a portion of the review that you can't really see in the snapshot. Thanks, Roz.