Ohlin is a magician. It’s not just that the stories are — individually and collectively — stunning; it’s that she makes it look so easy ... they unfold with an almost startling ease, warmly welcoming to the reader from their very first lines ... The story builds — as do most in the collection — to a moment of understanding, a key line or paragraph that simultaneously closes off the narrative while opening the character to a change in the direction of their life. That epiphanic quality is somewhat unfashionable in our jaded times, but that doesn’t matter: Ohlin manages, time and again, to reveal the underlying truths not only of her characters, but of her readers.
... explor[es] desire and grief through a finely drawn and eclectic cast of characters ... Ohlin’s sly irony leavens the aching plights of characters for whom closure is unattainable.
