Wild Horses

This story has a very plain lede: "Karen was twenty-six."
It's not anything extraordinary or very interesting and yet it captures your attention all the same because you want to find out who Karen is, and why it's important that she was twenty-six.
You later on find out that she was twenty-six when her fiancee Henry died.
And even though that's tragic, it's still another Rick Bass story in which nothing extremely unordinary happens and yet you keep on reading hoping something more interesting than real life, something you'd only believe in a fiction story, will happen.
In a way it has more of a plot than the other rambling stories, which is why I like this one better. Karen eventually deals with her grief through help from Sydney and then towards the end the roles switch and Karen begins to help Sydney deal with his gulit for Henry's death.
The title plays a big role in tying the story together. Karen and Sydney are a lot like the horses that Sydney breaks. Both of them are wild with grief and fear. It's the reason Karen wants to and does hit Sydney every month. And it's also the reason why Sydney lets her and almost wants her to hit him harder. They both want to be free of the guilt and the pain so they buck against anyone who tries to make them face it and move on. They want to feel like they can have feelings again. Even if those feeling are for eachother.