A sometimes painful yet openly comic work, Dolce Agonia is a moral and social reflection on our times compressed into a few hours on a snowy Thanksgiving night in a small college town. Sean Farrell, a poet with a gift for instilling discomfort, is hosting Thanksgiving dinner for a dozen people, not all of whom know one another. But as the evening unfolds, the reader comes to know each of the guests intimately -- their thoughts, aspirations, sufferings -- and even to catch a glimpse of their individual futures. Nancy Huston excels at moving seamlessly between comedy and tragedy. Even the death of a beloved character is rendered through such absurd twists that laughter ultimately overwhelms sadness.