Life and Oth­er Short­com­ings is a col­lec­tion oftwelve engag­ing, hon­est, and com­pelling short sto­ries about wom­an­hood; fea­tur­ing relat­able and well observed char­ac­ters that leave one feel­ing as if they’ve met them before. The sto­ries are set in New York, New Orleans, and Madrid and they span across time from the 1970s to the present.

The first sto­ry, ​“Din­ner Con­ver­sa­tion,” intro­duces the three cou­ples cen­tral to many of the nar­ra­tives. Their quick and clever repar­tee, psy­cho­log­i­cal spar­ring, and pre­car­i­ous rela­tion­ships – both mar­i­tal and pla­ton­ic – estab­lish the tone for the col­lec­tion and set the stage for Adjmi’s explo­ration of what lies beneath the tidy façade of women’s com­plex lives.

And com­plex they are – some of the sto­ries, such as ​“Hap­pi­ly Ever After,” and ​“The Dev­il Makes Three,” fol­low these fine­ly drawn women as they dis­cov­er nov­el ways to address their dire cir­cum­stances, while oth­ers explore friend­ship, inter­per­son­al con­nec­tions, and rela­tion­ship strug­gles with sen­si­tiv­i­ty and poignan­cy. Among the women of these sto­ries are duti­ful house­wives, devout­ly reli­gious women, women strug­gling with ill­ness, inse­cure teenagers, and many oth­er col­or­ful char­ac­ters. But, often, their strug­gles over­lap – fac­ing the inter­nal and exter­nal stan­dards set for them and ques­tion­ing their worth, their choic­es, and their place in soci­ety. Pop cul­ture ref­er­ences pep­pered through­out – includ­ing nos­tal­gic call­backs to Dr. Scholl’s san­dals, Swanson’s Frozen Din­ners, Star Trek, and The Brady Bunch – only add to the real­ism and heart of the book.

Over­all, these twelve sto­ries are full of dra­ma, para­ble-like lessons, humor, descrip­tive lan­guage, and insight, and they make for a very enjoy­able read. Adj­mi sub­tle­ty, but so per­cep­tive­ly, unfolds the char­ac­ters’ pri­vate lives, foibles, fears, hopes, and dreams, zero­ing in on how a sin­gle expe­ri­ence or event can change a life.