This short story collection by the acclaimed author of Midnight
Cowboy explores the desperate lives of outsiders with unflinching
insight.
In his first collection of short fiction, James Leo Herlihy examines the
experiences of alienation and isolation while elevating the oddities and
quirks that make up human nature. These seven tales tackle the anxieties
of fragile people and get to the heart of a world inhabited by perennial
outsiders.
Agoraphobic Daisy Filbertson and her teenage son Rudy, both addicted to
sleeping pills, find themselves frantically running from city to city
fueled by Daisy's manic paranoia. A lonely mother looking to start her
life over finds a new father for her daughter on an Army base. An
immigrant from Uruguay writes letters to his Mamacita while he tries to
find himself in the US. And a staunch Baptist has her world challenged
when she meets a handsome artist.