Excerpt from Florence Gordon by Brian Morton, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing big. Nothing terrible. It's just that I got pickpocketed, evidently, and I don't have anything except my phone. I need some money to get back home."

"Where are you?"

"That's why I called you. I'm three blocks away."

She named a restaurant.

"Well I'm right here," Florence said. "Just come up."

"That's nice of you. But it's a little bit complicated."

"Why?"

"The people I was having dinner with had to run, and I stayed to pay the check, and that's when I found out my purse was gone. So the owner doesn't want me to leave. He wants to be sure I'm not going to skip out on him."

"Vanessa, you're a very respectable-looking woman. You're a very old woman. You're obviously not skipping out on him. Tell him you're not Bonnie Parker."

"That's just what I told him. That's exactly what I told him, in fact. I told him I'm not Bonnie Parker. But he's not being very understanding. I think he thinks I am Bonnie Parker. I'm really sorry. But it'll just take a minute."

People, Florence thought as she put on her shoes. What do I need them for again?

He's afraid she'll skip out on him. As Florence waited for the elevator, she was muttering to herself. She reminded herself of Popeye the Sailor Man.

She crossed the street, still muttering. Muttering, and clenching and unclenching her fists.

She was doing this with her fists because she'd been having some trouble with her left hand. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Her fingers sometimes jumped around as if they had five little minds of their own. A neurologist had told her to get an ergonomic keyboard and an ergonomic mouse and an ergonomic splint for her wrist; she'd gotten all of it, and she'd faithfully done the exercises he prescribed, but none of it was working so far.

Muttering, clenching, unclenching: I must look, she thought, like a madwoman.

Excerpted from Florence Gordon by Brian Morton. Copyright © 2014 by Brian Morton. Excerpted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.