"Ordinary Pleasures" offers a new theory of narrative in its uncovering of how conversations and comic exchanges between lovers in stories create an intimacy and happiness of the everyday. Drawing on a diverse body of theory (from sociolinguistics to philosophy to literary criticism) and reading an unexpectedly eclectic group of texts (works by Shakespeare and Tolstoy appear beside "Casablanca" and" I Love Lucy"), Kay Young explores how narrative couples play together, struggle together, and return to one another to experience what it means to be in a relationship over time.