Jessie's Cafe is a staging place for a group of amusing, entertaining, sometimes raucous but always very real people. Each character is wildly unique yet their human yearnings and shortcomings unite them in a common, and uncommonly strong, bond. This unlikely family includes Jessie, the gorgeous, 79 year-old who owns the waterfront dive in which "one might expect to find Steinbeck." Louise is the cook and the dymanic center of this small universe. Willie is Jessie's gay grandson. And Joe Jones is the deeply devoted and continually unfaithful lover whom Louise tries hard to live without.Lamott weaves a complex tale that moves along breezily with great heart and humor, but skim the surface and you will find human frailty, remorse, and loss. Back in print after fifteen years, Joe Jones is a testament to the ways in which humor heals and binds.