East Side Story by Louis Auchincloss (2004)

I had some trouble figuring this one out. It was pretty dry and straightforward, and the chapters were only loosely connected. They almost read like short biographical sketches crossed with a short story. I wasn't exactly sure what the point was. I liked the story about Alida the best - her husband was a heavy drinker, who gave up drinking when he joined a quasi-cult. But the cult leader was money grubbingly greedy, so Alida thought she would pull one over on her husband and get him drinking again so he would stop going to church. But the husband had the last laugh - he left most of his money to the cult. The black humor of that story made up for the dryness of other stories. I was disappointed, because I like Auchincloss's nonfiction so much. I don't know if I want to try another fiction book or not. I hate it when I don't "get" a book too, especially a literary book - I always feel so dumb.