Phillips draws on John Kinsella's biographical details to help explain the subject matter of, and influences behind, Kinsella's poetry. He argues that Kinsella's poetic fecundity, literary development and career in general is based on an "extraordinary energy and talent" and intelligence. Kinsella has risen frenetically to "'the middle way' in the life of a writer" and with involvement in many current projects has a future of "extraordinary expectation".