Where We Are Now

Where We Are Now is a collection of stories that Carolyn Osborn has developed over two decades about a single family, the Moores. Marianne, the main narrator of these stories about her mother's family, says, "The truth is sometimes a poor, sad thing — wax fruit melted in an attic, a lone mule wandering on the front lawn, a mute player piano — a few insubstantial fragments. All we could do was grab hold and make something more of them." In the beginning story, "The Greats," her relatives are so distant Marianne can only give brief glimpses of these "eccentric, willful, mysterious Moores." "The Grands," an O. Henry Prize story, first introduced readers to many of the characters who inhabit Where We Are Now. By knowing the Moores, we begin to know Marianne who tries to understand them. Curious as she is, she must continually accept the mystery of reality. Aware of the need for family mythology, she orders her world as best she can with what she is given by reacting,...