This is a collection of loosely connected stories whose characters all live in the same apartment building in Manhattan. Falling somewhere between a novel and short stories, this book fails on both ends. The stories are too disconnected to achieve the flow of a novel or for the reader to care much about the characters’ development, but they are too interconnected to really stand on their own.

The writing is, for the most part, very good, but the characters are often unsympathetic and alien. Some judicious editing would have helped this book; for instance, the story “Jacob’s Bath” could have safely been cut, which would have made for a stronger book. However, a few stories stand out and are good enough to stand on their own; two of my favorites were “Fourth Angry Mouse,” about a failed comedian who finds his voice in the persona of a giant mouse in an off-Broadway play, and “The Opals,” about a man who meets a strange Hephaestian jeweler in the basement of a sex shop and receives a gift of the earrings he will someday give to the woman he loves. I could have left the rest of the volume alone, though.

A series of stories, woven together by common characters and a common location. Well executed and well written.