Emerald City and Other Stories, Jennifer Egan

A few years ago at George Mason University's Fall for the Book Festival I heard Jennifer Egan read an excerpt from the new novel she was working on. I was enthralled by the quirky characters and well-told tale and anxiously awaited her book. This is not it (that's A Visit From the Goon Squad which I hope to read in the next few weeks), but that's okay because this collection of short stories is fantastic. The first story, "Why China?" is about a well-to-do family on vacation in China who encounters a man who had swindled $25,000 from them a few years earlier. As I began the story, I was wary. What did I know about people like this and why should I care about them or what they do? Like a good storyteller, Egan shows you why. Story after story, Egan introduces disparate characters and situations that are real, recognizable, and resonant. Some people love short stories, love how you can read an entire story start to finish in under an hour in many cases. I don't. I like to immerse myself in a novel and live with it for awhile. What I like most, though, are stories that move me and stick with me. Emerald City and Other Stories did just that.