Is it a relationship if you've never met?
-- Sloane Crosley (Outside Voices)

Importance: In "Outside Voices," not long after Crosley moves into her new West Village apartment, her relationship with the idyllic neighborhood changes. Her teenage neighbor, Jared, takes up residence in the adjacent yard, and intrudes upon Crosley's personal life and her privacy. At the start of the essay, Crosley struggles with how to introduce Jared on the page, and thus how to categorize their relationship. The above quotation is essential to understanding Crosley's social commentaries throughout the collection. Indeed, even though Crosley is not familiarly acquainted with Jared, as well as with many of the individuals mentioned throughout the collection, she feels as if she knows him. In New York City, proximity compels this distorted version of intimacy, and thus challenges Crosley's understanding of social boundaries, barriers, and mores.

Their lives were out there and mine was in here.
-- Sloane Crosley (Outside Voices)

Importance: Throughout "Outside Voices," Crosley...