Critical reception to Bender’s first short story collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (which includes “The Rememberer”) was very positive: The New York Times selected it as a Notable Book of 1998, and the Los Angeles Times named it one of the best works of fiction for that year as well. A reviewer from Publishers Weekly calls the collection “a string of jewels,” and Fiona Luis of the Boston Globe writes, “Each short story packs quite a hefty punch, and each should be savored.” Several reviewers single out “The Rememberer” for praise, including Margot Mifflin of Entertainment Weekly, who writes that Bender’s “account of a woman whose lover evolves backward [is] superbly imagined.”

More than one reviewer praises Bender’s ability to combine her bizarre and sometimes comic story lines with...