From the very start of her career, Elizabeth McCracken has been recognized as a major literary talent. “Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry” comes from her first published book, a short story collection of the same name. Some of these stories were written when McCracken was still in college. Stories from the book were included in the Best American Stories collections for 1991 and 1992, and the book was listed as an American Library Association Notable Book of 1993. Reviews of the collection were generally favorable. Many mentioned the title story as a good example of McCracken’s skill in handling eccentric characters that are, despite their eye-catching flair, viewed with compassion and humanity. As Janet Ingraham puts it in a review entitled “Word of Mouth,” in Library Journal: “These nine stories reveal the oddness of ordinary life by...