After reading the first story in this book, set in West Virginia, for some strange reason Forrest Gump kept running through my mind. His box of chocolates quote, which fit these stories so well. Not to get all grumpish here but it is true you never know what you are going to get, and many of these stories sure surprised me.
The first story, which is also the title one, started a certain way and when a gun appeared the sense of violence was palpable. I was sure I knew where this was going. I didn't, the author turns this story on its head and resolves it in a totally unexpected way. The same with the second story, a drowning and a young boy involved. Another one I had thoughts about that turned out wrong. Another story that really made me think was called feeding instructions and it is not an easy read but the last lines were so spot on that I thought of it days later. Another difficult story concerns the death of two dogs, beloved by their owner and is all about grief. Has some beautiful lines, about how difficult it is to get inside another person's grief, no matter how much we try.

Only eight stories but so worth the reading time. Neighbors and family, caring and loss, people taking care of people, responsibility to family, friends. Quite amazing. ( )