In Private Mail: Letters to Emily, the author tries to escape city life and failed relationships through a self-imposed exile in his hometown, surviving there by maintaining a link to his life in the city with letters to his friend Emily. Therein, he recounts the curious and illicit and often humorously-bizarre events unfolding around him using an almost addictive conversational style, making for an engrossing and entertaining read. Emily soon learns, as does the reader, that life in a small town is not as parochial and idyllically-simple as it's often made out to be.