by Lorrie Moore
First published 1999
A second-rate movie actress in her thirties returns to Chicago and takes up residence in a seedy motel room. She becomes involved with a mechanic who has no understanding of who she really is as a person. Her story opens a collection that presents portraits of America's unhinged and unsettled. A woman travels through Ireland with her mother on a long-planned trip. When they venture out to kiss the Blarney Stone, her mother's carefully maintained image of wisdom crumbles to reveal panic underneath. At Christmas, a family plays charades, but the game transforms into a revelation of disintegrating bonds. A shy librarian from Transylvania moves in with her anarchist boyfriend in a small university town. A woman grieves her dead cat through stages of anger, denial, bargaining, and rage, while her friends believe she mourns deeper losses. Moore captures both personal struggles and universal experiences with wit and insight.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, slice-of-life
Setting: America, Blarney Stone, Chicago, Ireland, Transylvania
Period: Christmas, present-day
308 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: mental-illness