Having studied under Mary LaChappelle, I know her to be a warm, smart, perceptive individual. I also know that her more recent writing (yet to be published, sadly...)is superior to most of the pieces collected here. She knows this, too. That said, the title story is brilliant and worth the price of this book alone--it is one of those sad, piercing tales that sticks with the reader for years. In other words, it is a perfect short story. Some of the other works collected here too readily reveal the author's mind and pen at work, lurching and jerking along with very little insight and far too much forced whimsy. I'd recommend this book, but only for about three of the stories.

A sublime, honest, and beautiful first collection. The stories in "House of Heroes," most of them set in the small towns of Minneosota, portray women taken to the line between sane and insane, between grace and redemption