The Curse of the Appropriate Man

“A stunning and satisfying volume” of short stories about women and their relationships, from a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize (Booklist).

This collection of short fiction deals with the struggles between mothers and their wayward daughters, the often preposterous bonds that tie men and women together, and the complex games masters and servants play with one another.

Whether describing a mother mired in senile dementia in “Ma,” a young girl’s loss of innocence with an itinerant knife-sharpener in “Under the House,” or a young woman incapable of conventional love in “An Error of Desire,” Lynn Freed portrays the absurdity, the delusions, the dramas, and the dignity of her characters’ lives.

“Women’s relationships—with their mothers, their lovers, their culture and their own sexuality—are the subject of the 14 stories in this fine collection. Freed . . . creates achingly real women and lovingly rendered misfits, and she reports straightforwardly and without judgment on their unconventional urges and questionable decisions.” —Publishers Weekly