Reasons to Live

It is always “earthquake weather” in Amy Hempel’s California, a landscape where everything can change without warning. Traditional resources—home, parents, lovers, friends, even willpower—are not dependable. And so the characters in these short, compelling stories have learned to depend on small triumphs of wit, irony, and spirit.

A widow, surrounded by a small menagerie, comes to terms with her veterinarian husband’s death; a young woman entertains her dying friend with trivia and reaffirms her own life; in the aftermath of an abortion, a woman compulsively knits a complete wardrobe for a friend’s baby. Buffeted by rude shocks, thwarted by misconnections, the characters recognize that anything can finally become a reason to live.

In a tub
Tonight is a favor to Holly
Celia is back
Nashville gone to ashes
San Francisco
In the cemetery where Al Jolson is buried
Beg, Sl Tog, Inc, Cont, Rep
Going
Pool night
Three popes walk into a bar
The man in Bogotá
When it’s human instead of when it’s dog
Why I’m here
Breathing Jesus
Today will be a quiet day