• 《出版者周刊》2015年秋季度最佳图书之一
• “在这本令人难忘的回忆录中，珍妮特用深刻的语言分析了家人以爱之名跨越界限所做的错误决定。从本书中我们可以看到精神疾病对一个女人的影响以及用于对抗这些疾病激进而破坏性极大的手术。”——《科克斯评论》
• “《白质》一书融入了珍妮特自我的经历，20世纪的精神病学研究、医学界的不可靠性和我们中许多人做出的痛苦而错误的决定。”——《华盛顿邮报》
• “《白质》不仅仅是一部回忆录，它从宏观的层面审视了心理健康和人们留给后代的医学遗产。”——24700，加州艺术博客
• “《白质》是一本非常独特的书。文字很优美，观察很精炼，而其探讨的课题也非常吸引人。”——安东尼奥•达马西奥，《笛卡尔的错误》、《联想自己》作者
• 《白质》是本非常杰出的作品，让人们理解了这些不可能的事物。珍妮特通过描述自身家族的经历以及国家黑暗的历史创作了一个非常完美的隐喻结构。《白质》一书使因为错误的决定而失去亲人的人们提供了一丝慰藉。而这本书最妙的地方在于对所失去的优美的描写，珍妮特逃离过去的力量以及她对过往不断的提问。她的回答关乎我们每一个人。——拉德蒂•伦德夫，《离开粉红屋子》作者，《犁头》杂志主编
• “珍妮特•斯特恩博的两部作品交织了两位接受了脑前叶白质切除术家人的故事，此类手术的发展历史以及当代医学。珍妮特在书中探讨了这个令人不安的话题，如何使我们活得更加尊严，以及家人间的彼此依靠和失望，以及使我们拥有爱和优雅的方式。——玛吉•尼尔森，《残忍的艺术》作者
• One of Publishers Weekly’s Big Indie Books of Fall 2015
• “In this haunting memoir…Sternburg’s writing is incisive, and she deeply explores the boundaries that were unjustly crossed by family members in the name of love… [A] memorable story. A vivid and melancholy exploration into the mental illnesses that affected one woman’s family and the radical and damaging operations performed to counteract these ailments.” – Kirkus
• “WHITE MATTER is Sternburg’s tale of what she discovered, put in the context of her family’s history, the currents of 20th-century psychiatry, the fallibilities of the medical profession and the painful decisions that many of us make.” – Washington Post
• “Much more than a memoir, WHITE MATTER examines mental health at a macro-level and the medical legacy people leave behind for their own families to deal with—or not.” – 24700, The CalArts Blog
• “WHITE MATTER is a unique book. The writing is beautiful, the observations refined, the subject gripping.” – Antonio Damasio, author of DESCARTES’ ERROR and SELF COMES TO MIND
• “WHITE MATTER is a stunning achievement, attempting nothing less than to understand the impossible. Sternburg is a master at creating the perfect structuring metaphor through which to tell her family’s history and by which to illuminate a particularly dark time in our nation’s history. The work of WHITE MATTER is to find resolution to the dilemma of lives gone awry, despite the best of intentions. Ultimately the book’s wisdom is its graceful depiction of wholeness within loss, the strength Sternburg found to escape her past, and then to return with questions only she could ask. Her answers matter to all of us.” – Ladette Randolph, author of LEAVING THE PINK HOUSE and editor-in-chief of Ploughshares
• “Janet Sternburg’s WHITE MATTER—which intertwines the story of two lobotomized relatives, the history of lobotomy itself, and the author’s own coming of age/ coming to writing—demonstrates that sometimes telling it slant needs to give way to telling it straight. As Sternburg grapples thoroughly with her unnerving subject, her antennae admirably stay out for that which makes us human, how we serve and fail each other, what enables both love and grace.” – Maggie Nelson, author of THE ART OF CRUELTY