An excerpt from N. T. Wright’s review of The Five Quintets in Studies:
“It’s a giant symphony, with vast sweeping tunes and small lyrical moments, building to a sustained climax. It’s an intellectual, cultural and political history of the modern western world. It’s a portrait gallery with over a hundred sharply etched miniatures — Cervantes, Donne and Rubens all the way to Kierkegaard, Levinas and Ricoeur; and these are talking portraits, since the poet not only describes them and addresses them but lets them answer him back. It is, above all, a party, with dancing and delight, with the rhythms of the poetry setting our feet tapping and our hearts soaring. It is Micheal O’Siadhail’s long-awaited magnum opus, entitled with justifiable chutzpah ‘The Five Quintets’.”