“A high-spirited, fast-moving tale of a young woman climbing out of the limbo of statelessness … a picaresque novel about the world seen through the eyes of a character living by her wits — except that picaresque novels traditionally use knaves or fools as central figures and Nerina is neither.”
– National Post

“Charney writes in spare, tight prose, setting a brisk pace for a lively plot line and the introduction of intriguing characters … [she] has created a tough, but not toughened protagonist in Nerina … with its determinedly forward-looking protagonist, Life Class is an inspiring affirmation of life after loss.”
– Montreal Gazette

“Mocks the self-indulgence, pretension and aesthetic emptiness of the current high-art world … Charney shrewdly portrays the current art world as parasitic on art’s past.”
– Literary Review of Canada

“The fact that Ann Charney is one of the most overlooked writers in Canada becomes more apparent with each new book … Charney, a very intellectual writer, refuses to submerge the reader in an emotional hot tub and instead affirms the cool indifference of life and demonstrates our need not to bemoan it or grieve for it but, finally, to make something of it … What Charney gives the reader in Life Class is a rarity in fiction, particularly Canadian fiction: a sense of life as it is actually lived.”
– The Rover

“How does one start all over again and, more importantly, keep going in spite of setbacks? Charney’s approach to this universal question is handled with an astounding freshness in this complex and ambitious novel. A great novelist is one who tells us something new about the human spirit and Charney has succeeded in doing this.”
– Canadian Writers Abroad

“A favourite of mine … Really beautifully written … it should have been a Heather’s Pick.”
– CBC Calgary Homestretch