These stories all feature female characters searching for good-hearted, true, grown-up men. The women range in age, race, region, economic circumstance; they are with and without children, single and married. Some are down and out after marriages gone bad, husbands who have had affairs or just left for unexplained reasons. They all come from dysfunctional families though they keep up pretenses.

One of my favorites is "Carnival Lights" in which a high school girl's reputation is smeared when the girl attempts to divert attention away from an older woman's affair, the married mother of her boyfriend; the woman doesn't even much like her. It is the kind of story I like in which small circumstances lead to large complications and interesting character revelations. Full of wit and tragedy, they even indulge in occasional metaphor and simile; McCorkle sparkles as a connoisseur storyteller.

The first and as of right now the only book of short stories that I have really loved. ( )