Eleanor Stoddard tries to lead an exemplary life, to pursue the high road, and better herself and the world, but somehow things keep going awry. In "Port de Bras," even as Eleanor spends her summer reading about the Holocaust, her good intentions are disrupted by the discovery that her first best friend is a compulsive liar who has cried wolf too many times. "Salve Regina" wryly captures another ill-fated step on Eleanor's journey toward goodness. When, much to her mother's dismay, she dreams of becoming a nun and dutifully says her rosary in the bathroom at her first cotillion, Eleanor finds that she still can't save a friend from the consequences of her first seduction. Her marriage brings no relief from the twists of fate-and her quirky attempts to deal with them: In "The Case of the Disappearing Ingenue," Eleanor turns to Nancy Drew for help when she suspects that her husband may be cheating on her. In the Pushcart Prize -- winning "Funktionslust," the final story in this collection, Eleanor does get her childhood wish... but not exactly in the way she imagined. Traveling through Central America with a rescued laboratory gorilla, "Like a rogue saint, Eleanor Stoddard was sighted here and there, most often by the innocent."

This wildly imaginative collection presents the misadventures of unlikely heroine Eleanor Stoddard as she tries to lead an exemplary life but finds that things just keep going awry.

In the summer after sixth grade, she dreams of being as courageous as Anne Frank. As a teenager, her sudden devotion to Catholicism coincides with her crush on a nun. As a suburban housewife who suspects her husband of having an affair, she imitates Nancy Drew to try to solve her own personal mystery. And as a middle-aged woman, she embarks on a trek through Central America accompanied by a rescued laboratory gorilla.

While Eleanor makes her way through a whirlwind of adventures with life and love in which she is constantly reinventing her identity and rethinking her priorities, she manages to become a first-rate student, a published poet, and a loyal mother. Each story offers a glimpse into her familiar and charmingly odd journey, and she comes hilariously to life in these disarming tales.

"There is so much in Pritchard's talent that amazes: her dazzling language, the constant surprise of her details, the keen eye for dishonesty and disappointment."
   THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Pritchard's writing is precise and lucid... sharp and funny."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Wildly imaginative.... Endearingly quirky."
   GLAMOUR

"Delightfully odd."
   ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY