CAN'T AND WON'T

Her stories may be literal one-liners: the entirety of "Bloomington" reads, "Now
that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have
never been here before." Or they may be lengthier investigations of the havoc w
reaked by the most mundane disruptions to routine: in "A Small Story About a Sma
ll Box of Chocolates," a professor receives a gift of thirty-two small chocolate
s and is paralyzed by the multitude of options she imagines for their consumptio
n. The storiesmay appear in the form of letters of complaint; they may be extrac
tedfrom Flaubert's correspondence; or they may be inspired by the author's own d
reams, or the dreams of friends.