“For The Atlantic’s short story about a couple and their road trip to introduce the husband to his wife’s mother, who is ‘complicated.’ The thing that makes me happy with this piece is that somehow a pretty distorted perspective of the interior of this car ends up looking halfway believable, or at least doesn’t call attention to itself. The rearview mirror, seats and driver are not ‘correct,’ but overall work in concert pretty well. Thomas Hart Benton was so good at this sort of loopy perspective, and I look at his work especially for inspiration with complex narrative pieces.”