Describing people, creating them from the ground up, is a slippery thing.
They don’t stand still, like objects. Every fresh breeze, new thought, distant sound sets them trembling like leaves in the wind. Sanders has a way of fixing on a point, a detail (pimples, discolored teeth, tightly coiffed hair) and moving outward into the cosmos of human attributes; restlessness, a tendency to startle easily, ferocity. There is a kind of violence in every story, different kinds; and it is always surprising how the physical violence is the least disturbing kind.
Sanders’ characters have a youthful ease of movement; they toss things and roll and jump and greet strangers easily. Once in orbit around other characters, however, they almost always fail to obey physical laws. “Open your mouth for my gun,” says the girl at the front desk who has yet to grow into her true beauty. The man will be lucky if he gets out of there with all his teeth.
–Susan Salter Reynolds