The scary spaces twixt men, women

Likewise, "Single-Occupant Home" reads smoothly, deliciously, as Burgin's narrator tells us exactly how (if not precisely why) he has taken to breaking into people's houses, only to drift through them in a dreamy, distracted way, like a depressed ghost.

It's these kinds of people Burgin seems to understand the best; these are the ones who provide the most interesting (and unsettling) pieces of wisdom. This particular loony tells us he sees actual magic in the knickknacks in a stranger's house because they were collected to "save memories," without which we'd all be like "a giant flock of crazed bats."

This is not a rant but an unusual, useful insight, delivered in a pleasingly spooky package, and it's in moments like these that Burgin really shines. "When you're in someone's house it's like being in their mind. . . . Not that its mind is everywhere, but you'll find it in one of its rooms. When you find it, it's strangely satisfying - you're no longer alone then."

Katie Haegele's first book, "White Elephants," a memoir, will be published in March by Microcosm.