In the title story, a young man waiting in the Hotel Eden discoversas others havethat Eden is not a permanent domicile. In Zanduce at Second, a baseball player turned killer-by-accident undergoes a surprising transformation. We root for escaped felon Ray (A Note on the Type) as he carves his name on a culvert wall. We drive the sweltering summer streets of Phoenix as a nineteen-year-old narrator goes through an unsettling sexual awakening ( Oxygen ). In these and other stories, whether his characters are getting sabotaged by nightcaps or encountering nudists on a rafting trip, Carlson takes us to new places in a new way.Prepare to be amused, moved, disturbed. These stories by a master of idiosyncrasy visit a world where wit has heft, charm has shadow, and human beings act out all the complicated nuances of love.