title: The Mechanics of Falling and Other Stories (West Word Fiction)
author:  Catherine Brady 
description: In the exemplary title story of Brady's third collection of closely observed San Fran-centric stories (following <I>Curled in the Bed of Love</I>), a relationship both playful and tense is revealed subtly by everyday stresses to be a charged power struggle between privileged equestrian college dropout Annie and Clay, the stable manager. Whether carried away by their horses or their hearts, Brady's characters fixate on the unpredictable, teetering between knowing what was ahead and refusing to know. Buffeted by outside forces (illnesses, busted pipes, financial straits and death), Brady's characters often waver and fall: in The Dazzling World, a woman who lost her last boyfriend to suicide can't make sense of her current relationship; Slender Little Thing follows a teenage mom, who struggles by day with the rich children she nannies and by night with her own daughter; a businessman leaves his family to work in a church-run homeless shelter in Those Who Walk During the Day. Excepting the self-involved protagonist of Wicked Stepmother, Brady's leads are likable and idiosyncratic, and her insight into their unstable lives will keep readers swaying between a sense of comfort and loss. <I>(Feb.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00161.jpeg)
  
  _The Art of Falling_ is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
  incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used
  fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or
  dead, is entirely coincidental.
  
  Copyright © 2021 by Danielle McLaughlin
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of
  Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
  
  RANDOM HOUSE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin
  Random House LLC.
  
  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
  
  Names: McLaughlin, Danielle, author.
  
  Title: The Art of Falling : a novel / Danielle McLaughlin.
  
  Description: First Edition. | New York : Random House, [2021]
  
  Identifiers: LCCN 2019039687 (print) | LCCN 2019039688 (ebook) | ISBN
  9780812998443 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780812998450 (ebook)
  
  Subjects: LCSH: Betrayal—Fiction. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
  
  Classification: LCC PR6113.C523 R48 2021 (print) |