Quirky and resilient, they refuse victimhood, drawing instead on their savvy and sense of humor for creative ways to assert themselves even in extremity. A cancer survivor in a loveless marriage dons snorkel mask and flippers before she slips into the sea. A woman with a history of panic attacks, abducted by a bumbling version of the man of her nightmares, plunges beyond her terror. In the five linked stories of the volume's title, a "navy brat" displaced overseas forges through early adolescence against a background of emotional disruption and neglect.
In language as luminous as cut glass, Tinsley's stories capture both the poignancy and the absurdity of our post-modern lives.
