None is boldly dramatic.
Each deals with moments and details in routine days of mostly unexceptional lives. The artistry of Frederick Busch consists of stripping away conventions of setting, plot and description, and carrying the reader swiftly into the crevices of particular lives. There is a sense of physical intimacy created between reader and characters, not for the purpose of revealing shocking or unspeakable mysteries, but in order to show the subtle shifts in mood or behavior that compose the rhythms of life. Reading these stories is like hitchhiking. For 10 or 20 minutes, one is closely confined in the presence of a voice, a body, a human atmosphere.