This book was mentioned in Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist: Essays, in the essay entitled "Not Here to Make Friends". Gay talks about unlikeable women in novels, and mentions that this short story collection contains a number of "seemingly unlikeable women." I didn't find most of the women unlikeable, but rather struggling for connection in a world that has not been kind to them. Set in the American West, these tales marry the harsh geography with the stories that seem to come out of it. The gold rush, brothels, Vegas, and babies, wanted and unwanted underpin these stories of people trying to enter in to or maintain relationships. 
 Recommended.