Bea Maxwell has been kissed only once and has never been in love. Apart from a stint away in Chicago, she has always lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin where she cares for her invalid mother. Mona Simpson charts Bea's solitary but self-possessed life and that of her school-friend June and the younger, polio-afflicted Shelley. All three women's lives are linked through Bill, Bea's jazz-loving boss and the town cad.
Mona Simpson's exquisite novella reminds us of the positive virtues of constancy and fidelity in a world driven by change, ambition and twists of chance. Any woman who has ever wondered at the course her life has taken will discover truth and reassurance in 'Off Keck Road'. It confirms Mona Simpson's status as one of the finest and most sensitive observers of the human heart.