[In the following review, the critic praises the “magically relaxed” essays in The Harlan Ellison Hornbook.]

It has always been the case that the best character Harlan Ellison ever created was Harlan Ellison, and that some of his weaker stories fell apart because they could not contain the rasping voice of their creator. The Harlan Ellison Hornbook, because it is all about the best character Harlan Ellison ever created, avoids the problem. These autobiographical essays, most of them originally published in the Los Angeles Free Press in 1972–73, are magically relaxed in comparison to much of his fiction, colloquial, superbly easy to read. Ellison himself, gullible and generous, or intoxicated with rage, burns into the reader's mind, utterly believable, absolutely open to the world. He makes terrible mistakes about lovers and fellow writers, and tells us all. He threatens and cajoles and boasts, and we listen. We want to tell him we do love him. We want to shake him till his teeth rattle. We want him to shut up. But most of all we want him to continue.