"What serious reader hasn't marveled at how a book has helped to shape his or her moral view of the world? ... Coles examines just how it is that literature influences moral meaning in our lives as acclaimed authors share their private wrestlings with life's inequities. He is praiseful of the breathtaking insights of aesthetic genius and critical of the mean-spiritedness of some brilliant writers, using passages from famous works to examine how we regard ourselves and how we treat each other.... Coles weaves recollections of his own life—when he rose to meet human needs and when hubris inflated him with self-importance—with writings by James Agee, Raymond Carver, Tillie Olsen, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O'Connor, and others, as well as the art of Edward Hopper.... A joy to read as much for the snippets of great literature as for Coles' interpretations and the new perspectives he offers."—Booklist (starred review)