As I read this short book of very short stories my love for it crept up and up. It maybe started at 3 stars or even two. The language (or terminology really) was sometimes so specific that it was difficult to let the stories flow over me. I'm not sure if these were words from the time Pancake was writing, or North American, or even just specific to West Virginia, but at times they made the writing too dense.

But then I did start to get into the rhythm of it, and just fell in love with the penultimate story: In The Dry. As soon as I had finished that one I re-read it - so many layers and meanings that I only understood on the second read. Perhaps that would have been the same for the other stories, but I won't know (yet) because my husband has stolen it away from me to read for himself.