Problems

Based on the title, I thought I knew a bit about what I was in for with this novel, but it stunned me nonetheless. Maya's gritty, time-compressed world of heroin addiction is somehow shockingly raw and at the same utterly relatable. Each of her misguided steps in the wrong direction brings her into clearer vision as a young woman battling, with a wry, desperate humor, to find a way of being in a messy, messy world. As she reflects, "Dear world, I'm sorry, but I don't know if I will ever be the kind of person who can live with you," I wondered who among us hasn't struggled with this very question.