Donna Seaman in Booklist, November 1, 1999 captures the essence of this book."This is the slightest of Bantock's clever, illustrated novels. The author of the Griffin and Sabine trilogy and The Forgetting Room (1997), Bantock combines inventive collages with lightweight if witty and sweet metaphysical fables. This tale is told by Non, the curator of the museum in Purgatory. Purgatory is a city, Non explains, a city that is in constant flux, forever changing its shape, its buildings, its trees, and its light and colors. A place of ambiguity, it is where souls come to re-evaluate their lives. It seems that we are essentially conduits for information, which we "deposit" into the collective consciousness via our dreams. Therefore, the question each soul must answer before they leave is whether he or she has "contributed enough to the greater consciousness" to go to a Utopian State, or, failing that, to a Dystopia. Non's job is to watch over the souls of collectors and to house their treasures. His introductory explanation is followed by a catalog of some of the museum's holdings, which includes biographical profiles of a handful of collectors. One woman, believing herself to be ordinary, collected unique and extraordinary things. An Englishman hopelessly in love with a Persian woman collected magic carpets. Stamps, shrines, ancient artifacts, spinning tops, board and card games all reflect the personalities and predicaments of their owners. Non finally tells his own sad tale in the book's concluding chapter, bringing Bantock's pretty but vacuous little volume to a saccharine conclusion." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.