Phone Calls from the Dead

I laughed the whole way through this book. I needed to read just one a day and let it reverberate in my mind. I was trying to save the stories for an upcoming vacation, but each day I gave into the temptation to read one more. I found myself thinking "yes, exactly!" even during parts of the stories that were surreal. They were somehow "right" in the same way that a bizarre dream can seem right; it only seems odd when you begin to describe it to someone else.

this is an important and eloquent collection, from one of the finest young short story writers in the land.

This book is so amazing-- funny, witty, super intelligent-- and ultimately so moving. I really was swept up in it. Her characters (even the squirrels) all have incredibly rich and complicated reactions to events-- interpreting them in utterly private and sometimes hilarious ways. I don't think I've ever read a book of stories that sustained such a high pitch of intelligence and emotion. This is a writer who has listened to the culture, and has found it not wanting, but complicated and full-blooded and emotional and fascinating.