Neil Smith has a way with words. This collection of stories is sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heart-rending, and guaranteed to make you think. The stories are incredibly human, with just the right touch of the absurd. Some of them also go beyond a touch of the absurd. But they work somehow, and, too, are human despite the lack of humanity. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. I think he won some sort of Canadian First-Time Writer award.