内容简介：
Set in San Francisco and Chicago, these stories focus on women and girls who contend with the holy trinity of the Irish: melancholy, melodrama, and morbid guilt. Their Catholic upbringing imposes oppressive obligations but also offers a sustaining faith.In these stories women struggle against their economic reality, against their sexual vulnerability, against mothers, fathers, sisters. They negotiate an unstable, conflicted compromise between their personal aspirations and the compelling ties of family.They have no illusions about the "American Dream." Their working class heritage lends them a sharp tongue when it comes to what rings false; they forge their own honest vocabulary. Their language reflects an ingenuity in grappling with and rebelling against narrow circumstances and inner doubt.