Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Madeleine Blais is perhaps best known for her insightful essays chronicling the experiences of the disadvantaged and dispossessed members of American society. But even when she trains her journalistic eye on individuals in less extreme circumstances, what sets her writing apart is a remarkable talent for conveying the psychological reality of each subject's world. In this volume, she has gathered 15 of her most memorable essays, vivid portraits that speak to the realities of contemporary American experience.