Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing

The title story from Lydia Peelle's exquisite collection Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing demonstrates the accumulation of detail and beautifully somber tone that have won the author a veritable sea of acclaim. With her marriage in its death throes, a woman befriends an elderly herpetologist from a nearby university -- and begins to feel a growing affinity to the world of reptiles.