A couple of years ago, I featured a blog post on Frederick Barthelme’s Moon Deluxe, a collection of short stories written in 1983. Palm tree-filled apartment complexes, neon lighting and strip shopping centers are the backdrop to stories about simple interactions between people trying to find their way in life. The narrators of these tales are men, and they don’t always know what to do with the beautiful, forward women who cross their paths. Many of these stories were originally published in The New Yorker, and it’s amazing to see such vivid descriptions of suburban sprawl in all of its shiny ’80s glory.