Together at last ...

... Edith Pearlman | Butterflies and Pariahs | Cultural Conversation by Richard B. Woodward - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Ms. Pearlman often writes about well-educated, middle-class Jewish men, women and children living in or around Boston, and she embodies all of those qualities. Like one of her heroes, John Updike, she has invented a New England suburb (his was Tarbox, hers is Godolphin) as a setting for characters.

But it would be unfair to typecast her as a regionalist, an ethnic or women's author, or even a realist. What people do for a living matters in a number of her stories only as a reference point for action that darts off in unexpected and sometimes fantastical directions.