The Love Life of an Assistant Animator & Other Stories

In this long-awaited collection of short fiction by the author of Mariana and Our Lady of the Artichokes beauty is continually and painfully present in all places--in a Thanksgiving dinner assembled by a widowed DMV worker being stalked by an irate customer; in a middle-aged Hollywood actress who captivates a young studio animator for decades; in the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy; and in a daughters memories of the ethereal melting ice sculptures made by a woman embroiled in an affair with a wealthy lawyer. Amid their complex turbulent relationships in a chronic state of crisis Katherine Vazs wise and restless protagonists carry within them the seeds of a vanished gracious world of urbane dinner parties and passionate affairs--a humane and cultured civilization whose flawed inhabitants are redeemed by their ability to blend the aesthetic imperative with the power to love.