I'm on my third read through these stories since receiving it as a gift in the year of it's publication -- 1996. This is, however, the first time I've read the Kirkus review and I am VERY annoyed by it's condescending tone. I'm reading it again to find the me I locate when I read her stories. Williams' book is unique, as all great books are, and simultaneously reminds me in style, tone, manner of address, of certain other writers, eg. Grace Paley, Chekov, Borges, Flannery O'Connor, Saroyan. . . . The voice of the outsider living among outsiders whose outsiderness unites them (more or less) but excludes the writer as much as the "normal" (or "normative") world does. The social worker who "meant" to be a writer, the not-quite-well and healthy person who works with the "officially" handicapped, the atheist with all the impulses of one of the faithful, the "liberal" acutely attuned to the narrownesses that oppress, including her own narrowness. The griever who cannot stop laughing. . . . I long for another book from this writer.

This book is beautifully written, very funny at times, very poignant at others. It is mind-expanding and perspective-challenging. It's hard for me to imagine that it's fiction because it feels so real, so I decided to believe it as nonfiction. It's the best collection of short stories I've ever read -- it has a wonderful life-affirming quality behind the sometimes sad circumstances it covers. Highly recommended!!!