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Here we go.

All right.

We've entertained ourselves for the last week with another one of our, let's see if we can figure out this Gordian nod of our own tying.

And in this case, it is ranking the short stories in Marie Helene Bertino's new collection, Exit Zero,

by how Marie Helene Bertino they are.

And like with George Saunders, the specificities and vagueness and blurriness and vibes that we understand this author to be.

This is our second one of those,

one of these. I guess my first question is Bertino, for you, Rebecca, for Bertino, did this kind of

make sense? Did you have a kind of a divining rod sense of her that you could use, or was it

harder or bluerrier than you thought? You know, IHaleen-Bertino sample size is smaller than yours.

I have read 2 a.m. at the cast pajamas and Beauty Land and this.

So I missed parakeet.

I have not read the debut short story collection, Safe as Houses.

And you not only have read all of them, but you just read all of them in close succession

to each other prepping for that interview.

My sense of her, though, I do feel like is pretty defined.

Like, there is a kind of charmingness to some of the stories, a real insightful quality to how she observes characters and just beautiful sentences. I remember, you know,

liking the writing in Beautyland and appreciate it. Like that was one of my favorite books of that

...