ms in Everyone at This Party are reminiscent of James Tate, Bill Knott, and eternal Edward Lear. Rife with characters who stumble, speakers who suffer, and wisdoms that bristle with the darkest and lightest aspects of being alive, Modlin's portraits are delightful, artful, and frightening collages of the fractured individual who must daily relearn the lessons of love and grief. To read this book is to recoil with recognition, and then to shoot forward with the courage it provides via humor and the unexpected warmth of shared plight."--Larissa Szporluk, author of Traffic with Macbeth