"And there is then, of course, the tiny but beautiful mind-bending chaser that is Squaring the Circle: A Pseudotreatise of Urbogony by Gheorgie Sasarman, and translated by no less than Ursula K. Le Guin. If you are reminded of Italo Calvino, then you are on the right track, but Sasarman has his own smart visions to offer readers. The brief excursions into the fantastic cities described here will trip anyone's sense of wonder even as they cause readers to glance at the world we find at our doorsteps with new eyes. These cities are really enjoyable to read and re-read about as Sasarman spins off allegory and innuendo to imagination with remarkably clean language as translated by Le Guin.
Any one of these stories will craft in the reader's mind an entire world, a society, a country and then slowly but surely transform that imaginary way station into a refracted aspect of what is happening here and now, and ever and forever. This is the sort of book that is well worth seeking out, as are the cities of the imagination it creates for us. Of course all books create the world for us anew in our imaginations. But only when we help, when we take the time to sit down and read." --Rick Kleffel, The Agony Column Jan 30, 2013

"Squaring the Circle is highly readable. And it's fun. It gives us all the pleasure of a travel guide, and the addiitional pleasure of being—in spite of the meticulous description—unreal. As it turns out, a cityscape can be as interesting as a bildungsroman and as meaningful. The first section of Squaring the Circle, 'Vavylon,' is a fine description of a class society that claims to be egalitarian. Anyone can climb to the top of the ziggurat, except the ramps are greased. I thought of Stalinist Romania when I read it, but it could also apply to the US." --Eleanor Arnason, author of A Woman of the Iron People and Tomb of the Fathers