"There seems to be nothing this extraordinary writer can’t do… Spencer recounts the details and doings of her characters in such spare, unfussy, almost conversational prose that she sounds at first like nothing so much as a shrewd family storyteller…. Spencer’s great gift is her ability to take ordinariness and turn it inside out, to find focus in a muddle…Dazzling…a work of genius."
Malcolm Jones - New York Times Book Review "Spencer [is] an elegant and subtle writer.… Like Chekhov, the moments of most acute misery—those achingly common things that nearly kill us all—are offstage.… There are nine stories here, all wonderful, subtle and complex—which makes the cumulative effect all the more alarming."
Ann Beattie - San Francisco Chronicle "Spencer’s stories dance with the illusion of happiness but swell with unspoken sadness. Humor bubbles to the surface in the most unexpected ways …but that humor, too, is fragile….Starting Over is a veritable Whitman’s sampler of bite-sized stories stitched together by their shared stillness."
Michelle Moriarity Witt - The Charlotte Observer "She is, as she ever was, one of America’s best short story writers, with her invention and craft undimmed. Next time they bring out Spencer’s Selected Fiction they will have to wedge in at least two more masterpieces from Starting Over."
Wilton Barnhardt - Slate "Spencer’s first work of fiction, a novel titled Fire in the Morning, was published in 1948, and, as affirmed by her new collection of short fiction, these many years have not dulled the sharpness of her prose nor inched her into out-of-date perceptions of the world. Grand dame of southern letters that Spencer is, she remains a vital, passionate, contemporary-issues writer. [These stories] show the control and ease of a master; each story has superb qualities of artistry and social relevance."
Brad Hooper - Booklist (starred review) "Spencer has a special gift for the nuances in 'ordinary' human relationships; she creates suspense via anticipation more than through interactions themselves…. Spencer’s strength lies in highlighting human truths in captured moments."
Publishers Weekly "Spencer’s elegant stories are more about what doesn’t happen than what does…. Quiet and spare prose ferries tiny but explosive clues which point to powerful insights lurking between the lines…. In Spencer’s world, the emotional debt ceiling is always on the rise."
Kirkus Reviews