The dog of the marriage

the long version

"The Dog of the Marriage, Amy Hempel's fourth collection, is about sexual obsession, relationships gone awry, and the unsatisfied longings of everyday life." "In "Offertory," a modern-day Scheherazade entertains and manipulates her lover with stories of her sexual encounters with a married couple as a very young woman. In "Reference #388475848-5," a letter contesting a parking ticket becomes a beautiful and unnerving statement of faith. In "Jesus Is Waiting," a woman driving to New York sends a series of cryptically honest postcards to an old lover. And the title story is a heartbreaking tale about the objects and animals and unmired desires that are left behind after death or divorce."--Jacket.