Bark: Stories, Lorrie Moore, 2014

A clever, witty, beautifully crafted set of short stories set in the first decade of the 21^st C and featuring regular people just trying to figure out how to relate to each other, themselves, and the world.  Each story has some reference to the title—Debarking about a divorced man trying to come to terms with the divorce and relate to a new woman (who has a totally obnoxious son), The Juniper Tree about a woman who fails to see her friend before she dies, Paper Losses about a family going on a Caribbean trip before the parents divorce, Foes about a couple at an art patrons dinner where the man sits next to a 9/11 survivor, Wings, about KC, Milt, and Dench, Referential about a threesome—a mother, her mentally ill/autistic child and her boyfriend who was leaving, Subject to Search about a couple in Paris one of whom is a CIA guy, Thank you For Having Me, a mother and daughter attend the wedding of her nanny.  All the stories are quite memorable—characters, situations, and dialogue beautifully done.