Souls in Isolation

Many of the characters in these stories are cut off somehow from society. Often, their isolation takes the form of an inability to emotionally or spiritually connect with others. For example, new lovers on vacation seem to be going through the motions of their affair. Two astronauts in space have trouble interacting meaningfully in conversation. A jogger focuses into himself at the expense of looking outward, a man almost rapes a woman, another man stalks a woman, two students come to blows over an ideal, and a wife speaks angrily to her estranged husband through a performance she scripts for their two daughters. Even when people do connect, such as when two colleagues working in Greece share the same reactions to an earthquake, or when two nuns work in tandem in a depressed part of New York City, the characters are sufficiently different that their moments...