PositiveNPRThe stories contain plot insomuch as real life contains plot: we make sense and meaning out of what we\'re given ... The book\'s tiny moments are what create layers atop the unexceptional ... With Sestanovich, the everyday is a little shinier ... Along with questioning their own bodies, the women in the collection question memory — which memories can they claim as their own? How will the present be remembered? Do they remember accurately? In Sestanovich\'s clear prose, these questions are subtle, soft, and casual ... Sestanovich\'s humor is subtle and earnest. Her characters take it all quite seriously but in the ways we all do.
Emma Cline
PositiveNPRShe won\'t convince you that her characters\' misdeeds are absolvable, but she\'s equally uninterested in blaming them for their fumblings. There are no sweeping statements about how we should treat those who have caused harm on the micro or macro scale. Redemption is not the end game here ... Cline doesn\'t push too hard on whether her characters\' adherence to their desire is good or bad, immoral or admirable. While the disruptive decisions that change lives are titillating, they are not in fact where most of life is actually lived. Cline\'s stories show what happens if the eye is scratched — desire is replaced with its consequences, which are both mundane and insurmountable all at once.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
