Too Much of the Wrong Thing

Too Much of the Wrong Thing"At first glance Claire Hopples stories appear delightfully off kilter, even laugh out loud funny, but the flashes of wisdom start early in this collection and they dont stop. This is a world of constant disorientation where people aim for connection and gamble on intimacy, no matter how precarious. Hopples small towns are in decline and her families are fragile. Everybody lives here: older relatives who unravel or disappear; a sibling tipping over

"At first glance Claire HoppleÕs stories appear delightfully off kilter, even laugh-out-loud funny, but the flashes of wisdom start early in this collection and they donÕt stop. This is a world of constant disorientation where people aim for connection and gamble on intimacy, no matter how precarious. HoppleÕs small towns are in decline and her families are fragile. Everybody lives here: older relatives who unravel or disappear; a sibling tipping over into frightening criminality; three generations of women with the same name in the same house who manage to lose each other; a hitchhiker who proves the lie of American life; a couple of friends from childhood, forever connected in a web of communal memory. After watching HoppleÕs characters question the scripts theyÕve been handed, we are left to marvel at the hard work of being lost."

~ Jan Stinchcomb, author of 'Find the Girl'