It is difficult for an author to write a set of short stories that is universally appealing to a reader. While I enjoy short story collections, I usually only really like 25% of the short stories in them.

This was the exception. I really enjoyed all of these stories. Are they uplifting? No. They center on average people's loneliness and/or regrets in life with an existential bent. But they are honest and earnest glimmers into the lives that we often want to learn about. I am the type of person who wanders by someone and wonders about how his or her life has been shaped, and I find this collection very satisfying in quenching that curiosity.