“In Catherine Brady’s third collection of short fiction, there is a seamless fusion between delicacy and strength. It is not surprising that this collection begins with an epigram from Chekhov, whose fusion of the exceptional and the everyday characterizes his finest work as well.  Brady concerns herself with the lives of a number of citizens of California’s Bay Area. . . . She gives us glimpses into the jumbled and fascinating relationships of ex-hippies whose children are growing into their own lives as their parents stand by and watch, unable to intercede as clearly and perfectly as they did during the days in which lines were clear and action more decisively spelled out. . . . The nuances of Brady’s writing are inherent in her sense of language, in her use of dialogue and imagery, and in the lightness of touch with which she infuses the most serious of subjects with deft humor.  She knows exactly how to capture the essence of a look, an exclamation, or a gesture, so that like a tiny sliver of glass or a needle sliding beneath the skin, it can penetrate the reader’s consciousness seamlessly, leaving no impression other than a faint tingling—like a minor fall.”
—selection committee, Northern California Book Reviewers

“Whether carried away by their horses or their hearts, Brady’s characters fixate on the unpredictable, “teetering between knowing what was ahead and refusing to know. . . . Brady’s leads are likable and idiosyncratic, and her insight into their unstable lives will keep readers swaying between a sense of comfort and loss.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The perils and thrills of life’s unexpected junctures, and the decisions made as a result, are featured in this enticing, challenging collection. . . . Just as in life, Brady’s adept narratives do not offer neat conclusions, but rather glimmers of the unknown.”
—Leah Strauss, Booklist

“These are stories about ways of not staying in place, of becoming uncontained. . . Whatever goes in in her characters’ rich inner lives, Brady observes them carefully, with pitiless emphaty. She has their numbers, of course, but also the discipline to spare them, and us, from the heavy burden of authorial overdetermination. Her style is exacting but never suffocating. When brevity works so well, who needs a novel?”
—Jonathan Kiefer, San Francisco Weekly

In the exemplary title story of Brady's third collection of closely observed San Fran-centric stories (following Curled in the Bed of Love), a relationship both playful and tense is revealed subtly by everyday stresses to be a charged power struggle between privileged equestrian college dropout Annie and Clay, the stable manager. Whether carried away by their horses or their hearts, Brady's characters fixate on the unpredictable, “teetering between knowing what was ahead and refusing to know.” Buffeted by outside forces (illnesses, busted pipes, financial straits and death), Brady's characters often waver and fall: in “The Dazzling World,” a woman who lost her last boyfriend to suicide can't make sense of her current relationship; “Slender Little Thing” follows a teenage mom, who struggles by day with the rich children she nannies and by night with her own daughter; a businessman leaves his family to work in a church-run homeless shelter in “Those Who Walk During the Day.” Excepting the self-involved protagonist of “Wicked Stepmother,” Brady's leads are likable and idiosyncratic, and her insight into their unstable lives will keep readers swaying between a sense of comfort and loss. (Feb.)
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 12/22/2008