Review
`This -- and every -- collection from Rooke reminds me of one of those omelets people make for themselves on Saturday mornings. Once folded and eased onto the plate, it's not necessarily the prettiest thing to look at, but it is full of good things, so full in fact that odd bits of onions, red pepper and ham squeeze out. That's the way it is with Rooke. He doesn't have the lightest touch, but he is generous. There is never a bland mouthful in his stories.'
(
Canadian Book Review Annual )
`Rooke's vision is Manichaean, melodramatic, exaggerated, and sometimes intentionally cartoonish. At its root, it is pure antithesis -- angels against devils. This formal opposition, though, is the engine of his furious style. Leon Rooke doesn't write like any of those precious minimalists or k-mart realists cluttering the literary marketplace these days. He is the high-priest of maximalist panache, the standard-bearer for a hyper-rhetoric that is at once strange, eccentric, and beautiful.' (Douglas Glover Books in Canada )
Douglas Glover
[Rooke] is the high-priest of maximalist panache, the standard-bearer for a hyper-rhetoric that is at once strange, eccentric, and beautiful.
