Scott Lindenbaum

One of the interesting thing about a collection of this size, I think, is looking at the placement of the stories in relation to each other and what the group says as a whole. Here you have three works about young or youngish people trying to make sense of the world and the workings of their hearts, bookended by stories featuring protagonists who've made peace between their inner and outer lives -- Colson Whitehead's comedian in the first story, Lydia Davis' cows in the last.