The narrators of these 13 tales of survival all display a sly and ironic detachment as they reveal insights into the riddles of midlife crises. Mary Ben, who relates the title story, begins by describing the emotional and physical decline of her friend Lucy, who killed her mother and then died of heart failure while she slept in a prison cell. Mary Ben rents James Mason movies to watch on the VCR while her friend is in jail, but they don't help: "He's gone too. What was I looking for?" As in the collection's other tales, there is no climactic epiphany for the heroine. Seese ( Is This What Other Women Feel Too? ) maintains an unsentimental tone that allows her characters--women whose husbands have left them or died, women who have never married, contenting themselves with lovers--to recall incidents in their lives without falling into melodrama; they seem to know that a good part of life consists of just coping with it. The stories might have been simple variations on a theme, but they are distinguished by the strong voices and outlooks of their narrators. Seese also uses detail to good effect, never overloading a text but always inserting something that is at once unforgettable and contributory, if not to the plot then to the masterful tone.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Novelist Seese (What Waiting Really Means [1990]) tries a sure hand at the novella and short-story form. The main characters are mostly middle-aged, urban women, trying to find a personal balance in the world they inhabit but rarely know with any certainty. Most feel loss, as well as a general confusion about death, love, and sex. Many experience an estrangement from others and self, and while they try to connect, the realistic nature of these stories dictates that they are usually unable to do more than hope. Death makes its presence felt in a number of these stories, creating its own guilts and misunderstandings, as well as the fear of a nothingness that might follow life. The best stories here show women struggling for a day-to-day heroism, in which the attempt itself is often the only accomplishment their lives can offer. Brian McCombie
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