In the stories of Inappropriate Behavior, characters teeter on the brink of sanity—as those around them reach out in support, watch helplessly, or duck for cover.

Some of these characters come from the darkest recesses of American history. In one story, an innocent sets out on a transatlantic voyage aboard a freighter, only to find himself with a subversive, vaguely threatening bunkmate. In another, a student recognizable as John Hinckley Jr. writes hundreds of songs for Jodie Foster as he grows increasingly estranged from reality. Meanwhile, other characters are recognizable as contemporaries. A socially isolated young couple find themselves unable to resist their deviant sexual urges. A mid-level manager spots a man in a blue suit crawling across a parking lot from his office window. And in the deeply touching title story, a couple stretched to their limit after a layoff struggle to care for their emotionally unbalanced young son.

Set in cities across America and spanning the last half century, these stories draw a bead on our national identity, distilling our obsessions, our anxieties, our hauntings. By turns unsettling and hilarious, inscrutable yet illuminating, Inappropriate Behavior heralds the arrival of a meticulous, highly original voice in American fiction.