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.
