Houston

The story "The World Has Many Butterflies" is set in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood of Houston, where Julie moved shortly after her daughters were born so that her husband could be hired at an investment banking firm. Part of Julie's dissatisfaction with her life comes from her dislike of the area where she lives, as she mentions its lack of diversity, its emphasis on "football, hunting, and Christianity" (25) and the other mothers in her social circle who wear "expensive exercise wear that flattered their svelte figures" (24) and get plastic surgery. Julie feels out of touch with these women as a "big-boobed, curly-haired, high-spirited Jewish girl" (25) and misses Chicago, where she and Keith lived during and after graduate school.

Dartmouth

The story "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" takes place at Dartmouth College during narrator Dana's freshman and sophomore years. Dartmouth is an ivy league school located in Hanover...