Very funny, very sad, biting, and of course, well written. Bought this because I like Barnes and like lemons. Took two stories to realize that the theme of the book is as others have described it--aging and the aged and where and how dirty-mindedness and defying death persists. Perhaps would be better not to read the stories back-to-back, but the lemon table of the title appears fittingly only in the last one.