Loss and Grief

Over the course of the collection, the author explores notions of loss and grief via a range of varying narrative contexts and points of view. In particular, stories including “None of That,” “It Happens All the Time in This House,” and “Breath from the Depths,” consider such emotional experiences most directly. In “None of That,” the narrator is convinced that her mother is in search of something she has lost. Her mother’s longtime habit of going “to look at other people’s houses,” infiltrating their yards and homes, rooting through their things, making alterations to their properties, and stealing their possessions convinces her that her mother wants something she is incapable of recovering (16). “What are you looking for, Mom? What is all of this,” the narrator demands to know on their way home from the woman’s house (19). The narrator’s mother’s...