What a delight to have a new collection from Pamela Painter. These wonderful stories— about dogs and housewives, scholars and teenagers— vividly demonstrate Painter’s wicked intelligence and ruthless humor and her utterly democratic interest in all our faults and fables. The Long and Short of It is a quirky, sexy, irresistible collection.
—Margot Livesey
The stories in this collection are both short and long. An unfaithful boyfriend sets out on a cross-country road trip with an Italian Ham strapped in the seat beside him. A woman, whose husband has been stealing her stories, sues her spouse for custody of her own life. Families are mine-fields and sometimes children are dangerous. Pearls are seductive and rare Island shells can kill. The final story plaintively asks: Is there such a thing as the second night of a one-night stand?