I've heard a lot of good things about this book, so when I saw it in the library I grabbed it. I'm glad I've finally read it, but I liked it. I didn't love it. A lot of the (very short) stories collected here feel a lot like vignettes to me. They're appealing, but even appealing vignettes are a hard sell with me, I'm afraid. The language has got to be really amazing to round out the lack of plot, and while there were some effective lines here, I wasn't dazzled enough by the language to forget about what wasn't there. I'm sorry, but I like plot. 

I did think it was an effective snapshot of a neighbourhood, though. Sort of a characterisation of place, which was interesting.