I
think the first stories were the best, and the collection went downhill
from there (and I can see why the title story, "For the Relief of
Unbearable Urges", may have ticked off Orthodox readers- though even
there I thought the characters were basically sympathetic if foolish).
I also think Englander has trouble with endings; about half of them
tended to be kind of opaque and hard to follow. Nouveau Riche University