As in her other work, the fragmentation of modern life, especially within her own generation, the lack of commitment in people, mostly upper-middle-class people, to themselves and to one another, usually exhibited in failed marriages, the escapism of drugs or alcohol, and the neglect of children concern Beattie in this volume. While some characters show the ability, insight, and courage to face the lack of certainty and make fulfilling lives for themselves, a greater number do not.

Alternatives to the nuclear family, or role reversals within intact families are explored in several stories, as in the title story where the "father" is the live-in lover, known as Uncle Herb.

Perhaps the "truest parent," although certainly not a perfect one, is the mother of the retarded child in "Windy Day at the Reservoir," who has never been married to the father of her child.

The collection also...