Reviews of Film and Book

Reviews of I Think You’re Totally Wrong:  A Quarrel  (Knopf)

October, 2014:  “Two writers—one successful, the other still working on it—venture into the woods over the course of four days with one objective in mind: Argue so well that people will want to read about it…” – Kirkus Reviews

January, 2015:  “During a retreat at a cabin in Washington’s Cascade Range, the two longtime pals disagree on marriage, religion, sex, politics, happiness, film—and everything else—with passion, insight, and panache.” – Elle Magazine

January 2015:  “That it is outrageously entertaining, as is the rest of this talking book, constructed out of four days’ worth of unceasing dialogue between two old friends and sometime rivals, should go without saying.” Saul Austerlitz, – Boston Globe

January 2015:  “Start reading I Think You’re Totally Wrong, then try to stop; I dare you. It screws with your head in a way you can’t shake off, and it’s moving—weirdly moving. It ruined my work day. I loved it. Shields is opening up new ways to be a writer.” – Walter Kirn

January 2015:  “There’s no plot – yet the reader keeps going to see what happens next, or rather, what will be claimed, who will be indicted, what intimacy will be shared.” – Ron Slate

March 2015:  “Their extended verbal jam session is one of the most spontaneous literary artifacts since Jack Kerouac unloosed ‘On the Road’ during an amphetamine bender.” – John Murawski, Charlotte Observer

April 2015:  “These aren’t sob stories milked for emotional impact; they’re exhibits in service of debates: What aspects of life (a bigger family, marital stability) does the artist sacrifice for his work?” – Leslie Jamison, The Atlantic

June 2015:  “Totally Wrong works like a novel stripped of all the boring parts; it even has a tense and emotionally powerful climax.” – Rain Taxi

Film

May 2015:  “Even if you hate writing, you’re going to love I Think You’re Totally Wrong.” – Charles Mudede, The Stranger
August 2015:  Interview with Massachusetts International Film Festival
September 2015:  Interview with Word and Film