The people in Dressing for Hope have their roots in their cars. They occupy a world that most readers enter only as voyeurs: biker bars, seedy hotels, small-town lounges, and the backwoods refuges of disappointed city folk. Yet Lorna Jackson makes that world both familiar and engaging. Especially when distances between characters seem almost unbridgeable, Jackson allows moments of transcendence that make exquisite sense.

Dressing for Hope gives Jackson's readers their first chance to feel the collective power of her stories. Flawlessly written, with distilled descriptions and incisive observations of human nature, each is utterly compelling. Together they offer a memorable literary experience.