How We Got Insipid is a reissue of two early short stories, bound together in a handsome hardcover with a stunning illustration plate. Too handsome, really-- I vaguely resent paying top dollar for two years-old previously unpublished stories. But Lethem's achieved that status, and you know, I really like the stories. More than that, I was relieved by them-- they felt comfortable familiar to me as a fan of his genre stuff. The first story is vaguely post-apocalyptic Media Eats World stuff; very much my thing. And the second story jumped with relish into the magical realism territory that I wish his latest novel (You Don't Love Me Yet) had been brave enough to explore. So thumbs up to the collection after all, price be damned.