First published 1984
In "Alma," a teenage girl becomes the repository for her mother's secrets and loneliness. The mother confides her struggles while the daughter absorbs the weight of adult disappointments she cannot yet understand. "Counting" follows a woman through the stages of a relationship destined to fail, marking each moment that leads to its inevitable end. In "Callie," memories surface of a child's death in 1920s West Virginia, where grief settles into the mountain landscape like coal dust. These three stories join seven others, each narrated by characters who find themselves suspended between the safety of emotional distance and their deep need for human connection. Phillips gives voice to an entire generation of Americans who must choose between protecting themselves and risking genuine intimacy. The characters speak directly to readers, revealing their most vulnerable moments with startling honesty. Their stories unfold across different decades and landscapes, but each confronts the same fundamental question of whether true connection is worth the pain it might bring.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: West Virginia
Period: 1920s
53 pages · Hardcover · Vehicle Editions, (1984).