Wolff may indeed be a great stylist, but Will Heinrich's point about the self-importance and self-pity of much contemporary literature is a valid one: the psychotherapy generation folding into the blogging generation, at once exhibitionist and pathetic. Imnop lauds Wolff for "structuring [his] ideas around a real human decision" -- but what if the decision is itself a banal one? This, to me, is precisely where Wolff fails: he'd be much more credible if he tackled the meaninglessness of much of contemporary life rather than attempting to imbue it with a significance it doesn't deserve.