The verb to cultivate identifies the act of preparing and using land for crops and gardening. Another sense of the verb identifies the act of acquiring, growing, and maintaining--as in scientific cultures or amicable relationships. Cultivated, the adjective, describes an individual who has dedicated herself to improving her mind, her emotional and intellectual depth and breadth--traits that cannot be readily observed. The total senses of the word, then, encompass not only exterior but also interior vitality.

The stories within bear witness to a markedly American approach to cultivation: enhancing exteriority in order to understand and repair interiority. In an effort to forge happiness and overcome trauma, whether major or minor, each character in this collection focuses on the surface of his or her life, polishing it in order to stimulate its deeper counterpart, the inner life, where true reality lies.