Discomfort

Abstract

The stories in this collection are concerned with the lives of middle class Midwestern people who all feel some sense of discomfort or inability to feel at ease in their lives. Throughout this collection there are examples of characters who are discomfited by self-deception, racial profiling of others, misplaced goodwill, and anxiety about the future. In each case, the characters reach a metaphoric wall and find that they must recalibrate their internal compasses in light of what they’ve learned about themselves or their surroundings.