The Complexities of Intimacy: Stories

Dark, rich, rewarding stories that present the American family as a Heironymous Bosch painting.

The stories in The Complexities of Intimacy offer a surreal and darkly comedic exploration of that most complex of all institutions-the nuclear family. A breathtaking stylist, Mary Caponegro imbues her collection with startling details: a sister with an anatomical secret, a brother who invents a hammock from a harp, and precocious children who choose their own parents. Buoyed by her arch, Jamesian prose and psychological tone, Caponegro's stories are as delicately intricate as the fragile and difficult relationships they describe.