New York City

All 10 of the short stories in the collection are set in various locations around New York City. While all of the characters do live in New York, they primarily reside in neighborhoods throughout the Brooklyn borough. The characters live in apartments or townhouses everywhere from Crown Heights to Bed-Stuy, from Fort Greene to Bushwick. No matter the particular neighborhood in or street on which the characters live, their Brooklyn environment is pertinent to their external and internal experiences.

The New York backdrop especially inspires the author's vivid sonic, auditory, and visual descriptions throughout the short stories. This common setting also reveals the diversity of experience that exists in this single metropolitan region, and the ways in which Brooklyn culture might bring together a network of disparate lives.

Simone's Apartment

In "Comfort," Simone lives in an apartment in Bed-Stuy. When she first moves in, she and her...