New York Times Book Review
Most of the stories in this debut collection revolve around the relationship between teen-age sons and their fathers in the Midwest of the 1950s and 60s. Although Lee Martin favors endings in which the young protagonists world is shattered by a selfish paternal act, he manages to infuse each of these similar situations with its own particular twist . . . . What his characters learn . . . is just how easily a life can come apart.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette
The Least You Need to Know . . . demonstrates the authors considerable mastery at rendering with recognizable accuracy small town, middle-class, mid-western America and the people who inhabit it. . . . what these stories share is characters who seem so real that what happens to them matters to us. And Martin writes in a prose so fluid that what we read has the ring of a real voice simply speaking to us.

San Jose Mercury News
The Least You Need to Know is Lee Martins first book, and a strange and familiar one it is. There must be a thousand stories . . . about the relations of fathers and sons: the hokiest of themes, covered since Telemachus went in search of Odysseus. . . . Martins real, and promising, gift is to turn this cliche back into the urgent, intensely personal myth of growth it really is, and always has been.

BookLovers
Martins stories are solidly crafted, imaginative, and stoically compassionate.

Sonora Review
Martin succeeds with his own portraits, with his own skill for precise and intricate detail. . . . the most exciting moments in Martins writing come not from the dramatic tension, but from the swift, tender details that give these characters their humanity and make them more than just figures of tragedy. . . . Despite the characters failings, Martin does not judge or condemn them; instead he handles his characters as the undertaker in Light Opera handles his mourners: Eyes straight ahead, the undertaker advises his son, Dont embarrass them. Dont let them know how precious they are in their grief.