Reading the eighteen stories that make up this delightful novel is
a little like going through a frenetic friend's box of family
photos. The pictures are not in order and each one triggers another
trip down memory lane, with many detours and evoking buried
emotions. These include tales of her wanderlust that draws her back
and forth across the country as she tries to find her place, her
failed attempts to "win an Oscar in any category," the fickle and
faithful friendships, and her many encounters with men, including
the pervert porn producer and the forty-something rock star with
"issues."

Author Elizabeth Crane, as she notes about one of her characters,
"has a keen sense of observation with regard to human nature." In
addition, she has a way with words that keeps the reader engaged as
she relates stories in the life of Charlotte Anne Byers from age
six to age forty. The child's vignettes begin when the precocious
little bundle of energy is eight years old, riding the bus alone in
New York City to perform in the children's chorus of the New York
Opera. Even at her prepubescent age, Charlotte's mind is occupied
by thoughts of love for Dante DiMedici, an older man of fifteen who
is still "gender uncertain." Later she develops stage fright that
pretty much ends her operatic career, but her misadventures with
men go on and on.

The adult Charlotte's stories begin with her writing a lengthy
personal ad...about seven pages long. In it she recalls a "brief
but compellingly unfortunate prior experience in which one
respondent who described himself as a handsome and well-dressed
forty-year-old in fact could only be compared to Deputy Dog, if D.
Dog had a comb-over and wore a soiled t-shirt with pleated pants
and was closer to sixty and not a cartoon."

One of many memorable chapters is where Charlotte outlines the
things that she loves about her mom, who has just been diagnosed
with cancer. Mom was not your typical cookie baker but "once she
reupholstered Charlotte's queen-size sleeper sofa with white fabric
even though it's so impractical and she never threw anything away
that Charlotte might possibly have wanted or needed." But I think
my favorite was the last chapter, which contains every happy-ending
cliché you can think of and then some --- a must for us
diehard romantics.

At times Crane's prose will seem poignant, at others pointless,
depending on your perspective at the moment, and her lengthy,
mind-numbing sentences can cause your eyes to glaze over if you
don't stay alert. But this series of short stories written in her
unique, breathless style is sure to have you nodding and smiling
throughout.