This might be the best I can do. The stories kind of organised themselves into moods — elegiac, what you might call satanic (oppressive / criminal / mad / featuring the Devil) and domestic. I think those moods are the main ingredients; some of the pieces are mixtures or work as hinges. The last three work as a coda, reflecting other pieces. I almost started with Saving the Gleeful Horse, but that story works best for me with a lead-in. It has the most magical environment — it’s a place that you can’t walk right into from this world, if that makes sense. First you have to go through the land of the dead, then the land of fairytales, then you can get to actual fairyland. Beach Rubble is more elegiac than domestic, but it’s set (sort of) in the real world, and I think it plays nicer with the domestic gang than anywhere else. That section might get shuffled a bit, but I’m pretty happy with the others.

Here’s how the list looks, divided into moods and hinges:

The Art of Dying
The Love of Beauty
Saving the Gleeful Horse
The Memorial Page

Last Drink Bird Head

We the Enclosed
Maldoror Abroad
Two Dreams
The Heart of a Mouse
Between the Covers

Alsiso

Domestic Interior
Beach Rubble
Mother’s Curtains
Vision Splendid

The Crone Meets Her Son (on a battlefield)

She Mirrors
Madame Lenora’s Rings
When the Lamps are Lit