Instruct: Classify the given review as either positive or negative.
Query: a real writer with a unique sensibility

i've been waiting for this book for a long time. kirn is one of the few writers i know to successfully meld american traditionalism and post-modern antics. always entertaining, thought-provoking and quirky, there are few writers who provide such sentence-level pleasure (you'll want to read some of the set pieces here out loud to your spouse/friends). this is a funny, serious book, the work of a real american craftsman. you'll laugh while you read it and be haunted by it long afterwards.