“Barthelme achieves what Chekov spoke of as grace, the most gained with the least exertion. He leads us through a shattered set of lives, through scenes with no conclusions. We follow, not knowing where we are going, but certain it will be worth the trip. At the end we are shocked at how far we have come. Barthelme has shown us the chaos of life, and from it, lifted an order we’ve not seen before.” –San Francisco Chronicle