Throughout this collection, which was plucked from a pile of 300 manuscripts and awarded the Grace Paley Prize in short fiction, Caspers details the many ways reality can interfere with our dreams. Not surprisingly, dissatisfaction becomes a dominant theme. . . . Many of Caspers's stories are set in Minnesota's cattle and dairy country, and all of them traffic in the kind of Midwestern realism that doesn't rely on pyrotechnics to generate dramatic heat. Throughout, Caspers's people--it's difficult to consider some of them mere characters--question the decisions they've made or the ones they refuse to make. There's nothing flashy about Caspers's prose; like the beauty of the prairie itself, its attraction lies in details seen up close.New York Times Book Review
- ISBN13 9781558496446
- Publish Date 30 April 2008 (first published 5 December 2006)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 15 September 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Massachusetts Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 208
- Language English