Richard Clegg. “An Antidote to Smug Insularity.” Review of The Threshold and the Ledger by Tom McCarthy, Bookmunch, 8 September 2025:

“Before reading Tom McCarthy’s latest literary excursion, I skimmed my notes on Unwords (Dodo Ink) by his literary fellow traveller, Andrew Gallix, the founder of 3:AM Magazine. These two quotations brought to the fore the key aspects of their endeavour: “Replication (read realism) cannot grasp the essence of things,” and, “Written books are sweet but those unwritten are sweeter.” Both writers like writing about imaginary authors, but not yet a modern day Keats. Both have fought a guerrilla-struggle to widen the scope of English fiction. They seek asylum on the European continent, not near Dover. They are serious but comical too.

…Where Gallix strays towards the French, McCarthy veers towards the Greek and Germanic. They form a necessary coalition against the anti-experimentalists who sometimes seem to dwell in a cave of obscure Victorian novels.”