[2] Akbar said that the collection, along with his chapbook Portrait of an Alcoholic, was his personal way of processing what he experienced as an addict and even solidifying and making sense of his sobriety.

The themes of the collection center mainly around Akbar's path through addiction and finding his way to recovery.

[5][6] Kenyon Review called Akbar "a sumptuous, remarkably painterly poet,"[7] going on to say: A number of poets over the years have made alcoholism a major subject—Franz Wright, with his lacerating lines, comes to mind, as does John Berryman and his theatrical derangements.

But few have written about this exchange I’m describing—spirituality for spirits, and vice versa—with as much beauty or generosity as Kaveh Akbar.

His debut collection is about addiction and its particularities but also touches something larger and harder to point to, to talk about—existential emptiness and the ways substances often offer respite from our spiritual hunger.