An AMAZON.CA Top 100 Book of 2013 "Gas, grass, or ass: No one rides for free". So begins this cheeky and chirpy short story debut by Nancy Jo Cullen. Working-class, a little queer, and a lot funny, Cullen''''s characters-from the hymn-singing Catholic merch salesman to the young lez, hitching rides beside a born-again pile of ashes-encounter the killer decisions that will invisibly, quietly, and quirkily shape our lives. Nancy Jo Cullen mines humanity''s beautiful fault-lines. There is not one lousy story in this bunch, but there are plenty of lousy people, all of them gleaming with the shimmer of real. Cullen knows just where to find the funny in tragedy, and how to make words feel like life. - Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer Cullen''s prose is volcanic even when she''s describing the most domestic situations possible - the language is full of subterranean rumbles that simultaneously disturb and delight. The writing is always surprising, always bright, even in the most somber moments. Moving and funny, these stories will break your heart in the very best way. - Suzette Mayr