thickhead, any of about 35 species constituting the songbird family Pachycephalidae (order Passeriformes), considered by some authors to be a subfamily of Muscicapidae. Thickheads have heavy-looking, seemingly neckless foreparts and are named alternatively for their loud, melodious voices.

thickknee, any of numerous shorebirds that constitute the family Burhinidae (order Charadriiformes). The bird is named for the thickened intertarsal joint of its long, yellowish or greenish legs; or, alternatively, for its size (about that of a curlew, 35 to 50 centimetres, or 14 to 20 inches) and

saga: Legendary sagas: …found in Vǫlsunga saga and Þiðriks saga, the latter composed in Norway and based on German sources.) Other Icelandic stories based on early poetic tradition include Heiðreks saga; Hrólfs saga kraka, which has a certain affinity with the Old English poem Beowulf; Hálfs saga og Hálfsrekka; Gautreks saga; and Ásmundar…

Wayne Thiebaud was an American painter and printmaker who was perhaps best known for his thickly painted American still lifes of such items as foods and cosmetics. He is often incorrectly associated with American Pop art because of his many images of banal objects. However, unlike Pop artists such

jollof rice: History: One of those was thiéboudienne or thiebou dieun, a dish made by cooking rice with fish, shellfish, and vegetables; the word thiéboudienne comes from the Wolof words for rice, ceeb or thiebb, and fish, jën. As the Wolof empire expanded, the dish spread throughout the region, and different ingredients…

jollof rice: History: One of those was thiéboudienne or thiebou dieun, a dish made by cooking rice with fish, shellfish, and vegetables; the word thiéboudienne comes from the Wolof words for rice, ceeb or thiebb, and fish, jën. As the Wolof empire expanded, the dish spread throughout the region, and different ingredients…

Michael Mann: …to directing theatrical films with Thief (1981), a thriller about a professional jewel thief (played by James Caan) that established his reputation for intelligent drama and stylized atmosphere. After a brief turn to horror with The Keep (1983), he directed Manhunter (1986), a gritty police procedural based on Red Dragon,…

fire ant, (genus Solenopsis), genus of nearly 200 species of ants that occur in tropical regions of the world, such as Central and South America, and in some temperate regions, such as North America. They are noted for their ability to survive extreme conditions, including floods. Taxonomy See also

The Thief of Bagdad, American silent swashbuckling film, released in 1924, that cemented Douglas Fairbanks’s reputation as a matinee idol. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) To win the hand of the caliph of Bagdad’s daughter (played by Julanne Johnston), a thief

Louis Malle: …major film, Le Voleur (1967; The Thief of Paris), a gentleman is driven to become a thief out of hatred of himself and his bourgeois origins. Malle’s other films of the 1960s included the zany comedy Zazie dans le métro (1960) and the musical satire Viva Maria! (1965).

False Dmitry: In March 1611 a third False Dmitry, who has been identified as a deacon called Sidorka, appeared at Ivangorod. He gained the allegiance of the Cossacks (March 1612), who were ravaging the environs of Moscow, and of the inhabitants of Pskov, thus acquiring the nickname Thief of Pskov. In…

John Boyne: …critically praised debut novel was The Thief of Time (2000), which chronicles the life of a man who does not grow older. The story blends historical elements from the 18th century to the 20th century, including the French Revolution and the 1920s American movie industry. The novel Crippen (2004) is…

False Dmitry: Although the second False Dmitry bore no physical resemblance to the first, he gathered a large following among Cossacks, Poles, Lithuanians, and rebels who had already risen against Shuysky. He gained control of southern Russia, marched toward Moscow, and established his headquarters (including a full court and…

Jean Genet: …autobiographical Journal du voleur (1949; The Thief’s Journal) gives a complete and uninhibited account of his life as a tramp, pickpocket, and male prostitute in Barcelona, Antwerp, and various other cities (c. 1930–39). It also reveals him as an aesthete, an existentialist, and a pioneer of the Absurd.

Leonid Maksimovich Leonov: …he followed with Vor (1927; The Thief), a pessimistic tale set in the Moscow criminal underworld.

police: The stipendiary police: …often resorting to hiring “thieftakers.” These precursors to modern bounty hunters were private citizens who, for a fee or a reward, attempted to identify wrongdoers and to return stolen property to its rightful owners.

Tiel, gemeente (municipality), central Netherlands, on the Waal River, west-southwest of Arnhem. Chartered in 1200, Tiel developed as a medieval port and market town and became a member of the Hanseatic League. The town now has a horticultural school, serves a fruit-growing (cherries, apples, and

Peter Thiel is a German American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and business executive who helped found PayPal, an e-commerce company, and Palantir Technologies, a software firm involved in data analysis. He also invested in several notable ventures, including Facebook. When he was one year old,

Peter Thiel is a German American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and business executive who helped found PayPal, an e-commerce company, and Palantir Technologies, a software firm involved in data analysis. He also invested in several notable ventures, including Facebook. When he was one year old,

classification of religions: Other principles: …the History of Religion,” and Thieles Kompendium der Religionsgeschichte neu bearbeitet, or “Tiele’s Compendium of the History of Religion Revised”) he contended that Christianity is the central point of the entire history of religions and, therefore, classified religions according to the historical order in which they came into contact with…

Zen, important school of East Asian Buddhism that constitutes the mainstream monastic form of Mahayana Buddhism in China, Korea, and Vietnam and accounts for approximately 20 percent of the Buddhist temples in Japan. The word derives from the Sanskrit dhyana, meaning “meditation.” Central to Zen

Vietnamese literature: …biographies and verse pronouncements entitled Thien uyen tap anh (literally “Flowers of the Garden of Thien,” more prosaically “Outstanding Figures in the Zen Community”) included works by famous monks such as Van Hanh, Man Giac, Vien Chieu, Vien Thong, Khong Lo, and others. In the late 13th century, with the…

Simon Stevin: …Stevin published a small pamphlet, La Thiende (“The Tenth”), in which he presented an elementary and thorough account of decimal fractions and their daily use. Although he did not invent decimal fractions and his notation was rather unwieldy, he established their use in day-to-day mathematics. He declared that the universal…

Simon Stevin: …Stevin published a small pamphlet, La Thiende (“The Tenth”), in which he presented an elementary and thorough account of decimal fractions and their daily use. Although he did not invent decimal fractions and his notation was rather unwieldy, he established their use in day-to-day mathematics. He declared that the universal…

Andrea Palladio: Visits to Rome and work in Vicenza: …Palazzo Iseppo Porto in the Palazzo Thiene (c. 1545–50), Vicenza, the largest and most problematical of his palace designs, of which only the side and rear blocks were completed. Four wings, containing a combination of rectangular rooms and small octagons, similar to those of the Roman public baths, are symmetrically…

Andrea Palladio: Visits to Rome and work in Vicenza: At the Villa Thiene (c. 1550) at Quinto, he started to build a grandiose house planned on the lines of his reconstruction of a Roman villa shown in the Quattro libri, but it was never finished. At the Villa Sarego (c. 1568–69) at Santa Sofia a similar…

ecology: Historical background: In 1920 August Thienemann, a German freshwater biologist, introduced the concept of trophic, or feeding, levels (see trophic level), by which the energy of food is transferred through a series of organisms, from green plants (the producers) up to several levels of animals (the consumers). An English…

heterocyclic compound: Rings with seven or more members: heterocycles—azepines, oxepines, and thiepines—and their derivatives are the most comprehensively studied.

Thierry was the count of Flanders (1128–68), son of Thierry II, duke of Upper Lorraine, and Gertrude, daughter of Robert I the Frisian, count of Flanders. He contested the county of Flanders with William Clito on the death of Charles the Good in 1127. He was recognized by Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres

Thierry was the count of Flanders (1128–68), son of Thierry II, duke of Upper Lorraine, and Gertrude, daughter of Robert I the Frisian, count of Flanders. He contested the county of Flanders with William Clito on the death of Charles the Good in 1127. He was recognized by Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres

Thierry de Chartres was a French theologian, teacher, encyclopaedist, and one of the foremost thinkers of the 12th century. According to Peter Abelard, Thierry attended the Council of Soissons in 1121, at which Abelard’s teachings were condemned. He taught at Chartres, where his brother Bernard of

Thierry was the count of Flanders (1128–68), son of Thierry II, duke of Upper Lorraine, and Gertrude, daughter of Robert I the Frisian, count of Flanders. He contested the county of Flanders with William Clito on the death of Charles the Good in 1127. He was recognized by Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres

Thierry de Chartres was a French theologian, teacher, encyclopaedist, and one of the foremost thinkers of the 12th century. According to Peter Abelard, Thierry attended the Council of Soissons in 1121, at which Abelard’s teachings were condemned. He taught at Chartres, where his brother Bernard of

Augustin Thierry was a French historian whose discursive method of presenting history in picturesque and dramatic terms makes him one of the outstanding Romantic historians. Thierry was educated at Blois and at the École Normale in Paris, where he first met Saint-Simon. He was fired with

Augustin Thierry was a French historian whose discursive method of presenting history in picturesque and dramatic terms makes him one of the outstanding Romantic historians. Thierry was educated at Blois and at the École Normale in Paris, where he first met Saint-Simon. He was fired with

Adolphe Thiers was a French statesman, journalist, and historian, a founder and the first president (1871–73) of the Third Republic. His historical works include a 10-volume Histoire de la révolution française and a 20-volume Histoire du consulat et de l’empire. Thiers was officially the son of a

Adolphe Thiers was a French statesman, journalist, and historian, a founder and the first president (1871–73) of the Third Republic. His historical works include a 10-volume Histoire de la révolution française and a 20-volume Histoire du consulat et de l’empire. Thiers was officially the son of a

Thiès, city, west-central Senegal. Situated 35 miles (56 km) east of Dakar, it is an important transportation centre, serving as the junction of the eastern Dakar-Niger River railway and the northern rail and road systems. This central location has spawned light industries and processing plants,

heterocyclic compound: Four-membered rings: Azetidine, oxetane, and thietane—four-membered rings containing, respectively, one nitrogen, oxygen, or sulfur atom—are prepared by nucleophilic displacement reactions similar to those used to prepare the corresponding three-membered rings.

Thietmar was the bishop of Merseburg and chronicler whose history of the three Ottos and Henry II, Saxon kings of Germany and Holy Roman emperors, is an important medieval Saxon document. The son of John Siegfried, Graf von Walbeck, and a relative of the royal house, Thietmar spent his youth in

Vietnamese literature: …virtuoso play was the emperor Thieu Tri (ruled 1841–47), who wrote a poem for his intellectual recreation that was a circular palindrome offering 12 different readings. This poem, carved in jade inlay for a wood panel at the Long-An Palace, can still be seen at the Imperial Museum of Hue.

Nguyen Van Thieu was the president of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) from 1967 until the republic fell to the forces of North Vietnam in 1975. The son of a small landowner, Thieu joined the Viet Minh in 1945 but later fought for the French colonial regime against the Viet Minh. In 1954 he

slang: …States, is more often called argot. The term dialect refers to language characteristic of a certain geographic area or social class.

Robert Altman: M*A*S*H and the 1970s: …and the period details in Thieves Like Us (1974), Altman’s adaptation of Edward Anderson’s 1937 novel about a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like gang of bank robbers. Others felt the film fell short of Nicholas Ray’s treatment of the same source material in They Live by Night (1949). California Split (1974) was a loosely…

Yusef Komunyakaa: Other works and teaching career: He followed Neon Vernacular with Thieves of Paradise (1998)—a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award—which includes a long poem dedicated to jazz musician Charlie Parker titled “Testimony.” The poem was set to music by Australian saxophonist Sandy Evans and was performed by the Australian Art Orchestra and 11…

quadriceps femoris muscle: …front and sides of the thigh. It has four parts: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius. They originate at the ilium (upper part of the pelvis, or hipbone) and femur (thighbone), come together in a tendon surrounding the patella (kneecap), and insert at (are attached to) the…

femur, upper bone of the leg or hind leg. The head forms a ball-and-socket joint with the hip (at the acetabulum), being held in place by a ligament (ligamentum teres femoris) within the socket and by strong surrounding ligaments. In humans the neck of the femur connects the shaft and head at a

thigmotrich, any protozoan of the ciliate order Thigmotrichida, found living parasitically in and about the gills or in the mantle cavity of bivalve mollusks. On the anterior part of the cell are long cilia (hairlike processes) for attaching to the host. The mouth opening is posterior; in some

thigmotrich, any protozoan of the ciliate order Thigmotrichida, found living parasitically in and about the gills or in the mantle cavity of bivalve mollusks. On the anterior part of the cell are long cilia (hairlike processes) for attaching to the host. The mouth opening is posterior; in some

tropism: …substances), hydrotropism (response to water), thigmotropism (response to mechanical stimulation), traumatotropism (response to wound lesion), and galvanotropism, or electrotropism (response to electric current). Most tropic movements are orthotropic; i.e., they are directed toward the source of the stimulus. Plagiotropic movements are oblique to the direction of stimulus.

heterocyclic compound: Three-membered rings: Molecules containing thiirane rings are more bactericidal than those containing oxirane rings, and some thiirane derivatives have found application as tuberculostats (drugs that inhibit the growth of tuberculosis-causing bacteria), whereas thiirane 1 oxides have been reported to be insecticides, molluscicides, or herbicides.

Lodewijk van Deyssel was a leading Dutch writer and critic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The son of J.A. Alberdingk Thijm (who promoted a Roman Catholic cultural revival in the Netherlands), he joined the largely agnostic individualistic group associated with the avant-garde literary

Thika, town, south-central Kenya. It lies in the highland region just northeast of the capital city of Nairobi, at an elevation of 4,943 feet (1,507 metres) above sea level. Situated in a fruit-growing area, Thika specializes in fruit canning (notably pineapples); the production of textiles and the

Kenneth V. Thimann was an English-born American plant physiologist who isolated auxin, an important plant growth hormone. Thimann studied chemistry at Imperial College in London, where he received a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1928. After teaching for two years at King’s College for Women in London,

Kenneth V. Thimann was an English-born American plant physiologist who isolated auxin, an important plant growth hormone. Thimann studied chemistry at Imperial College in London, where he received a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1928. After teaching for two years at King’s College for Women in London,

thimble, small, bell-shaped implement designed to protect the end of the finger when sewing. Among the earliest known thimbles, dating from before ad 79, were those made of bronze and found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Modern thimbles are almost exclusively produced in plastic or soft metals. Purely

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel: …a new two-lane tunnel under Thimble Shoal Channel, connecting two of the artificial islands in parallel to the existing tunnel. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the new tunnel will carry two lanes of traffic southbound, and the existing tunnel will be used to carry two lanes of traffic northbound.

coneflower: hirta), thimble-flower (R. bicolor), and coneflower (R. laciniata) are grown as border plants. Golden glow (R. laciniata variety hortensia) is a popular double-flowered variety.

Thimphu, capital of Bhutan. The city, situated in the west-central part of the country, is in the Himalaya Mountains on the Raidak (also called Thimphu, or Wong) River at about 7,000 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level. It was designated the official seat of government in 1962 (formerly the seat

thimerosal, mercury-containing organic compound with antimicrobial and preservative properties. Thimerosal was developed in the 1920s and became widely used as a preservative in antiseptic ointments, eye drops, and nasal sprays as well as in vaccines, particularly those that were stored in

banyan: One individual, known as Thimmamma Marrimanu, in Andhra Pradesh, India, is thought to have the broadest canopy of any tree in the world. The banyan is the national tree of India.

sewing machine: …was designed and manufactured by Barthélemy Thimonnier of France, who received a patent for it by the French government in 1830, to mass-produce uniforms for the French army, but some 200 rioting tailors, who feared that the invention would ruin their businesses, destroyed the machines in 1831. Thimonnier’s design, in…

Thimphu, capital of Bhutan. The city, situated in the west-central part of the country, is in the Himalaya Mountains on the Raidak (also called Thimphu, or Wong) River at about 7,000 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level. It was designated the official seat of government in 1962 (formerly the seat

Ben Elton: Early life and career in television and film: …such as the police sitcom The Thin Blue Line (1995–96)—again starring Rowan Atkinson—and the historical sitcom Upstart Crow (2016–20), which focuses on the life of playwright William Shakespeare. The film All Is True (2018), written by Elton, similarly concerns Shakespeare, specifically the end of the great bard’s life, and stars…

Errol Morris: Education and early films: …skills to his third documentary, The Thin Blue Line (1988), which reviewed the case of Randall Dale Adams, a death-row inmate convicted of having killed a Texas police officer. Laying out a case for wrongful conviction, the movie played a major role in Adams’s release from prison the following year.…

thin client, computer terminal or software application providing access over a network to a dedicated server. Unlike a personal computer (PC), which hosts applications, performs processing tasks, and stores files locally, a thin client does little more than transmit keyboard and mouse input to the

muscle: Thin filament proteins: The thin filaments contain three different proteins—actin, tropomyosin, and troponin. The latter is actually a complex of three proteins.

advanced ceramics: Film deposition: On the other hand, truly thin films (that is, films less than one micrometre thick) can be produced by such advanced techniques as physical vapour deposition (PVD) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD). PVD methods include laser ablation, in which a high-energy laser blasts material from a target and through a…

sugar: Concentration and crystallization: …juice, now called clear or thin juice, is pumped to multiple-effect evaporators similar to those used in raw cane sugar manufacture. In the evaporators the juice is concentrated to thick juice (60–65 percent dissolved solids), which is mixed with remelted lower grades of sugar to form standard liquor. From this…

W.S. Van Dyke: …films were those in the Thin Man series.

The Thin Man, novel by Dashiell Hammett, published in 1934. Hammett’s portrayal of sophisticated New York café society during Prohibition and his witty protagonists Nick and Nora Charles made this the most popular of his works, if not the most successful critically. Nick Charles is a former

The Thin Man, American detective film, released in 1934, that was considered a paragon of the fun, sophisticated, glib dramas produced by Hollywood during the Great Depression. The film is the first in a popular series of detective films featuring William Powell as the dapper detective Nick Charles

American literature: Realism and metafiction: …(From Here to Eternity [1951], The Thin Red Line [1962], and Whistle [1978]) that centered on loners who resisted adapting to military discipline. Younger novelists, profoundly shaken by the bombing of Hiroshima and the real threat of human annihilation, found the conventions of realism inadequate for treating the war’s nightmarish…

Terrence Malick: With The Thin Red Line (1998), based on James Jones’s novel about the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal, he relied on an ensemble cast to present an existential meditation on war. Malick was nominated for best adapted screenplay and best director Academy Awards, though he…

mechanics of solids: Beams, columns, plates, and shells: …steps in the theory of thin shells were taken by Euler in the 1770s; he addressed the deformation of an initially curved beam as an elastic line and provided a simplified analysis of the vibration of an elastic bell as an array of annular beams. Johann’s grandson, Jakob Bernoulli “the…

light: Thin-film interference: Observable interference effects are not limited to the double-slit geometry used by Thomas Young. The phenomenon of thin-film interference results whenever light reflects off two surfaces separated by a distance comparable to its wavelength. The “film” between the surfaces can be a vacuum,…

thin-film solar cell, type of device that is designed to convert lightenergy into electrical energy (through the photovoltaic effect) and is composed of micron-thick photon-absorbing material layers deposited over a flexible substrate. Thin-film solar cells were originally introduced in the 1970s

liquid crystal display: Thin-film transistor displays: …of this complexity by using thin-film transistor (TFT) TN displays, in which each pixel has associated with it a silicon transistor that acts as an individual electronic switch. (A cutaway portion of a TFT display is illustrated in the figure.) The use of a transistor for each pixel makes the…

David Storey: …As It Happened (2002), and Thin-Ice Skater (2004).

thin-layer chromatography, in analytical chemistry, technique for separating dissolved chemical substances by virtue of their differential migration over glass plates or plastic sheets coated with a thin layer of a finely ground adsorbent, such as silica gel or alumina, that is mixed with a binder

property law: …society with respect to “things.” The things may be tangible, such as land or a factory or a diamond ring, or they may be intangible, such as stocks and bonds or a bank account. Property law, then, deals with the allocation, use, and transfer of wealth and the objects…

Fantastic Four: Origins: …Richards’s beefy longtime friend pilot Ben Grimm. The foursome commandeered an untested spaceship of Richards’s design from the U.S. military in a frantic but unsanctioned effort to beat the Soviets into space. In orbit, the craft was flooded by cosmic rays that genetically altered its passengers. Upon returning to Earth,…

thing, in medieval Scandinavia, the local, provincial, and, in Iceland, national assemblies of freemen that formed the fundamental unit of government and law. Meeting at fixed intervals, the things, in which democratic practices were influenced by male heads of households, legislated at all levels,

Renée Zellweger: Judy and other films: …appeared as a murderer in The Thing About Pam (2022), a true-crime TV miniseries.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck and Americanah: The following year she released The Thing Around Your Neck, a critically acclaimed collection of short stories. Americanah (2013) centers on the romantic and existential struggles of a young Nigerian woman studying (and blogging about race) in the United States.

Peter Bogdanovich: The 1980s and beyond: The Thing Called Love (1993) was a meditation on the elusiveness of dreams, with River Phoenix and Sandra Bullock as would-be country stars. The film received only a limited theatrical release before moving to video.

The Thing from Another World, American science-fiction film, released in 1951, that was produced by film director Howard Hawks and was noted for its intelligent script. A group of U.S. Air Force investigators uncovers the remains of a spaceship in the Arctic and in the process discover a frozen

The Thing from Another World, American science-fiction film, released in 1951, that was produced by film director Howard Hawks and was noted for its intelligent script. A group of U.S. Air Force investigators uncovers the remains of a spaceship in the Arctic and in the process discover a frozen

John Carpenter: From Assault on Precinct 13 to Starman: The Thing (1982), the first of several movies for which he served as director only, was more appreciated later than at the time of its release. Christine (1983), adapted from a Stephen King novel about a possessed car, and the sci-fi movie Starman (1984) were…

rationalism: Epistemological rationalism in modern philosophies: …causality—represents an order holding among things-in-themselves (German Dinge-an-sich) cannot be known. Kant’s rationalism was thus the counterpart of a profound skepticism.

Things Fall Apart, first novel by Chinua Achebe, written in English and published in 1958. Things Fall Apart helped create the Nigerian literary renaissance of the 1960s. The novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the

the Roots: The 1999 offering, Things Fall Apart, was regarded as the band’s breakthrough album and won both critical praise and commercial success. A single from the album, “You Got Me,” a collaboration with vocalist Erykah Badu, won the Grammy Award in 2000 for best rap performance by a duo…

Bob Dylan: Elder statesman of folk and rock: …best original song for “Things Have Changed,” from the film Wonder Boys. Another Grammy (for best contemporary folk album) came Dylan’s way in 2002, for Love and Theft (2001).

Italian literature: The Risorgimento and after: …D’Azeglio (I miei ricordi [1868; Things I Remember]). D’Azeglio’s historical novels and those of Francesco Guerrazzi now have a rather limited interest; and Mazzini’s didactic writings—of great merit in their good intentions—are generally regarded as unduly oratorical. Giovanni Prati and Aleardo Aleardi, protagonists of the “Second Romanticism,” wrote poetry of…

Richard Wilbur: …Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Things of This World: Poems (1956), which was enthusiastically hailed as less perfect but more personal than his previous poetry. Wilbur wrote within the poetic tradition launched by T.S. Eliot, using irony and intellect to create tension in his poems. Some critics demanded more energy…

Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods: In The Things They Carried, a fictional narrator named Tim O’Brien begins his memoir with a description of the items that the members of his platoon took to war, which range from physical objects, such as weapons and love letters, to emotions of terror and homesickness.…

William Cameron Menzies: Films of the 1930s and ’40s: …on the British production of Things to Come (1936), which was inspired by the novel The Shape of Things to Come by H.G. Wells, who wrote the script. The science-fiction epic starred Raymond Massey in a dual role as the visionary Cabal, who survives the fall of one futuristic society…

Halle Berry: …roles in the character-oriented dramas Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), as a recent widow, and Frankie & Alice (2010), as a woman with dissociative identity disorder.

A.M. Homes: Things You Should Know (2002), a second collection of short fiction, further mined middle-class America for black humour and insight.

rationalism: Epistemological rationalism in modern philosophies: …causality—represents an order holding among things-in-themselves (German Dinge-an-sich) cannot be known. Kant’s rationalism was thus the counterpart of a profound skepticism.