In the title story of this collection, neighborhood boys crouch in a backyard toolshed, and conspire to prove their piano teachers to be witches. In "Cannibal Kings," a disillusioned young man accompanies a troubled boy on a tour of prep schools through the Pacific Northwest, only to realize that he has lost his way in life. And in "Come Live With Me And Be My Love," a middle-aged gentleman looks back at his mannered early life as a Ivy Leaguer, married to a vivacious woman but silently yearning for his best friend - and the sacrifices that each made to uphold their compromising bargain.
With a classic storyteller's gift for nuance and understanding, and a poet's grace for language, Andrew Sean Greer makes a remarkable debut with How It Was For Me.
"Wry and rueful.... Quirky and languorous, [Greer's] style beautifully captures his characters' wistful self-consciousness.... His stories are humane and hopeful in ways that are too rare."
John Perry, The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"Refreshing and provocative...Greer's stories are self-contained and well crafted.... Subtle and poetic."
Chris Berdik, The Boston Book Review
"[An] impressive debut...There are very few flubbed lines in Greer's stark, delicate opererttas, which are as clever as they are gravely real."
