overall great, dreamy dybek. here dybek is nearly always writing about the difficulties of becoming an adult, either by translating childhood memories from their native language or through the agonies of early adulthood. these stories feel heavy, humid, densely minor key, but not overdone. the book wilts a bit at the end, drooping into sentiment and losing some of the sharp, almost pointy brilliance of dybek's descriptions. i wondered reading "the coast of chicago" whether the book reads the same if you're not at least passingly familiar with the neighborhoods of chicago. i think this book asks the same question but ultimately i can't read it without seeing little village/my old apartment on marshall.

best stories: "breasts," "blue boy," "orchids" -- all of which approach novella length.

this was a slow read -- lot to appreciate and dream on in each story.

also, fact check corner: the baseball game on the radio at the zip inn in "breasts" is apocryphal. i checked baseball reference's game logs for the pitching matchup.