“Elegantly casual and scandalously funny. . . . Venusberg, I once read somewhere, is a satire on totalitarian government. That’s as good a handle for it as any. Yet it concentrates much more on men and women than upon the laws that govern them. . . . In some of the best light dialogue of our time, Powell makes clear the difference between feverish sophistication and true worldliness.”

Charles Poore | New York Times

“A brilliant picture of diplomatic and less exalted society in a little Baltic State. Mr. Powell’s dialogue and comments are crisp, shrewd, and satirical, and his second novel is a worthy successor to Afternoon Men.”

Spectator (UK)

“Powell’s novels bite deep, but only to reveal that even at our most foolish we are all in it together.”

Leo Lerman | New York Times

“Looking back at Powell’s earlier novels, it is possible to see him discovering there how to use his razor-sharp satirical sense until it is purged of bitterness and extravagance.”

Elizabeth Janeway | New York Times

“In this era of YouTube, cell phones, and Snapchat, the possibility of real strangeness or feelings of isolation in foreign travel are almost impossible to recover, in addition to the sometimes unpleasant colonial overtones some such novels evoke. In Venusberg, however, the charm and humor of such a setting comes through, even as Powell searches after deeper themes. . . . Venusberg is valuable because we see Powell working out perspectives that would later form the basis of Dance.”

Gerald J. Russello | The Millions