This was the first book I have read by the author, and I may be mistaken, but I think it's her first book, period. She's coming to do a signing at the bookstore and I wanted to check her out before she came. The book is full of short stories, mainly concerning women around the New Orleans area. Most of them are having affairs with unatainable men.

I liked the leaning doll on the cover; its pose suggests someone who is just waiting for something to happen - which is very fitting for the book and must have been difficult for the photographer to get out of a doll. Most of the women are tired of waiting for life to happen to them and finally do something pretty stupid to make things more exciting. I just didn't get the women in these stories. The book was just not that great...sorry. A few stories were direct rip-offs of some Dorothy Parker short stories. I liked that they all took place around new orleans, but it's hard to be sympathetic to a bunch of women narrators that are all whoring around on the men they're supposed to be faithful to. Can they only find themselves when they screw around? Bull.

I read Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" years ago, and I loved the scathing view of dull married life. I still love Ira Levin's "Stepford Wives" for that same reason. And I know there is still pressure on women to marry and have kids and live in suburbia...but the problem I had with most of these characters is that they seem to be well-aware that they are modern women with choices, yet they still marry men who most of them seem to actually care for, and then cheat on them. There is no real thought or insight as to WHY they do this, it just seems like an accepted thing to do when one is bored. Or they get divorced only to quickly hop right into bed with unatainable men (married or the brother or boss of the ex or current lover). Unexplained tattoos, runaways, staying with men who are married and admit to smacking their wives. I just don't understand any of these chicks. Where's their indignance at being treated shabbily? Where are their hearts as they cheat on their husbands or help Mom cheat on Dad? One woman has a 30 day a year relationship with a pilot who brings her someone else's suitcase to enjoy, which she has a fit over (damned sensibly, I thought) and the story ends with him just sitting on the bed watching her have her fit, and her stopping and looking at him. What the hell?

I guess they are all looking for ways to escape boredom, but they are all just too self-destructive for me. I couldn't be friends with any of these women and I damned sure couldn't BE any of them...wandering around Jackson Square in a borrowed bear costume longing for my ex I kicked out, running off with a bagboy who works at The Piggly Wiggly in a low-rider while I know Mom's screwing my uncle...

I don't know, I felt nothing but disgust for most of these women. I know how boring it can be, how frustrating life is and how the same-old junk can drive you mad, but that doesn't explain any of these characters' actions to me. "I want to be alone, I need someone, no, I need someone new, I don't want my husband to call, but I want him to be home, I pretend my sister is screwing my husband so I can get off..."

ARE WE ALL SO SCREWED UP AND HOPELESS? I know I've got issues but damn...these women may be beyond help, and not one of them even sees happiness on the horizon.

Recommended: No