Short stories published in 1980

Listing 18 stories.

A father and his family witness the chaotic collapse of their neighbor's family, and make small efforts to intervene.

A professor leaves her job and her husband for her ancestral home of Newfoundland. There, she confronts depression, isolation, old friends, and old love.

Struggling to write a letter to her old, formidable Mississippian aunt, a woman considers her shame, guilt, exhaustion, and trauma in her Philadelphia apartment that is far from her family and her childhood home.

An ice skater in the entertainment industry, to the chagrin of her cat-obsessed mother, performs the same routine each night with a man dressed in a bear suit.

A divorced mother has a terrible morning at her ex-husband's property at Presque Isle, which she enjoys as a vacation home for the summer, after her car breaks down and her daughter calls her out for her shameful drunken actions of the night before.

When a highway accident causes an injured truck driver to spend months at home to recover, he finds himself grasping at the threads of his marriage as his wife grows more and more distant.

After graduating from Harvard, a tall Japanese American man struggles to find his path despite growing up as a perfect, high-achieving student and athlete.

As a wistful divorcee helps his ex-wife and two sons clear out their former home, discarding nostalgic belongings, he finds it difficult to let go of the past.

M. Alexandre Caisse gathers an assembly of building residents to air their grievances, discuss recent intrusions, commiserate over the deterioration of their building and their culture, and generally fill the room with strong opinions.

Ann and her son Davey witness a hold-up at their favorite French restaurant.