"Novelist Bell presents a sterling collection of essays on literature, culture, politics, and war by the late Stone (1937–2015), best known for his National Book Award–winning novel Dog Soldiers. Spanning the 1970s to the aughts, the essays demonstrates Stone’s remarkable capacity for capturing an era’s ethos while making larger, and still current, points...Throughout, Bell provides useful biographical information, which in combination with the essays provides a vivid portrait of Stone’s background and guiding philosophy. Fans of Stone’s novels will especially appreciate the insight, but any reader of narrative nonfiction will find plenty of interest in this fine collection." — Publishers Weekly
"This first collection of Stone's nonfiction, edited by his biographer, Madison Smartt Bell showcases the same dizzying welter of ideas and passions that defines Stone's landmark fiction...In 'What Fiction Is For,' he says that 'art is the only medium we have for removing a moment from the whirl of events and placing it under scrutiny in all its dimensions.' These essays, however, argue persuasively that, for Stone, nonfiction can do the same thing." — Booklist