In his first collection of stories since Fabulous Small Jews,

Joseph Epstein delivers all the pleasures his readers have

come to expect: stories of ordinary men confronting the

moments that define a life, told with the bittersweet humor

and loving irony encompassed in the title of the book.These

fourteen tales map a very particular world-Jews whose lives

are anchored in Chicago-in rich, revealing detail even as

they brim with universal longings: complex love affairs and

unspoken rivalries, family triumphs and private disappointments.

Epstein, who happens to possess a standup comic’s

gift for punch lines (New York Times Book Review), brings

his emphatically grown-up characters to witty, rueful, and

charming life. The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff is a marvelous collection from a master of the short form and one

of the most distinctive writers working in America today.