I chose this book for my book club’s December 2018 read. Imagine my shock when I opened Goodreads to shelve it “Currently Reading” and discovered I read it in June of 2016. How could this be? Why don’t I remember this book? Why does it only have 3 stars?

And then I read it again. Ugh. I still gave it 3 stars, but I don’t know why. I just finished it and can’t remember anything I read. I remember feeling annoyed at pretty much every character and thinking that this whole book is just bleak as Hell. But I can’t remember a single story in its entirety. It is well-written; I can recognize that even as I dislike the book. Maybe that’s why I decided on 3 stars. But who knows. ( )

Adult Reader Reaction: It is hard to describe my reaction to this book in a word. Each story is very well written, but none of them wowed me. That said I kept "feeling" something between Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Pros: Thought-provoking, emotion-tugging stories will keep readers thinking about events and outcomes in each of the stories in this collection.

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This group of stories seem to be written by a woman whose experience with men has now evolved / devolved / certainly migrated to some position in which women view men much like one would dogs. They can be dependable companions, occasionally heroic, but also vicious attackers. Only a fool, and there are many fools among us, who try to remake dog pals into human pals. In other words, these stories are narrated by women who have had serious man problems, who see the world no longer through rose colored glasses, whose hopes for goodness among men and sweet children and caring grannies is mediated by the front page of a newspaper every morning, whose life experiences have brought them to realize the princess pabulum they were fed while growing up female in America was not a full and healthy diet for 21st century womanhood. The characters are fierce, usually very flawed, sometimes bitter, thoroughly wry, full of spunk and energy, and often willing to look at themselves and the world with high-beam surgical lighting and precision.

One of my favorite stories in this collection is "Magic Words" in which several women's lives intersect one evening when all three make disastrous mistakes. Two escape narrowly, the third not so well. Paula, the main protagonist, is a middle-aged woman who is bored with her standard, pretty-good marriage. She has two teenage children. She decides to have an affair. On her way she gets detoured by Lauren, a troubled high school girl who gets involved with a psychopathic boy gangster who has every intention of raping her and killing an old woman who he sees everyday at his grocery store job as bagger. Lauren is in the boy's car because she's been hurt by her boyfriend (one of the good guys if only a puppy) and is seeking inappropriate comfort and acceptance. Lauren narrowly escapes, leaving behind both her shoes and coat. Paula sees her, recognizes her from her daughter's school, and picks her up and takes her home. Meanwhile, Agnes, an aging widowed schoolteacher is home alone thinking of a male student she befriended until she realized he was resentful of her efforts. She still misses him. She wishes he would stop by so she could see how he is doing. Instead this new boy, the psychopath, parks outside her home and breaks in either to scare her or kill her. I won't spoil the ending, but like the news these days, it doesn't allow us to feel easy, comfortable in our own little isolated worlds.

We still get wit and pathos well balanced from McCorkle, and the telling is rendered with precision of plot and authenticity of dialogue that make the stories seem simple, but they are darker. The shoe motif, woven in seamlessly, works well as a symbol of what women put on and take off to make our way through a confusing world. Highly recommended.

Excellent short story collection. ( )

Listening to Jill McCorkle read "Me and Big Foot" at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia inspired me to read more of this treat of a book. The author captures, in a phrase, the twisty bits of a character's personality and I fall in love with her humanity. Slowing down to savor each word in the beautiful North Carolina accent of this author is pure delight. ( )