M any of the most memorable characters in this collection are scarred by some traumatic incident, often in childhood or marriage. Many of these characters relate one central incident from their past that changed or determined their life. The narrator in "Love Too Long," obsessed with his long-estranged wife, concludes that "Nothing in the world matters but you and your woman." The family often exerts a claim on a character that cannot be denied.

Often Hannah's central character is an homme manque — a gifted or talented individual — like French Edwards, the tennis player, or Arden Quadberry, a saxophonist — unable to fulfill the promise he shows in youth. In other stories, Hannah's protagonists are marginal characters who hover on the fringe of respectability.

Still other characters never demonstrate any distinctive qualities and are remarkable for being so completely ordinary. They barely manage to survive, either literally...