Although I've read (and loved) three of Baxter's novels, this was the first of his story collections I attempted to read. At first, I thought I might be too dumb to read them. I read the first one and was left scratching my head. I even returned the book to the library. The next time I went to the library, though, there the book was again, mocking me from the shelves. So I took it home, and read the second story. And from there, the third. And by then, I was completely hooked. Sure, I liked some stories more than others but each story is so well-crafted, so slowly and methodically built up that by the end, I hated seeing the text peter out to nothing. The best description is Ann Beattie's quote on back of the book, "Baxter has become a master of articulating the quiet confusion of despair, and of subtly suggesting that despair may, at times, be redemptive." Subtle indeed. But absolute genius.