Excitable Women Damaged Men

Renowned for his critical essays and for his editorship of the illustrious literary review, Salmagundi, Robert Boyers now appears to us with his first collection of brilliant short stories, appreciated for their craft, authority, and visual perfection by some of the most important writers on the American scene. The collection includes "Samantha," originally published in The Ontario Review, the winner of the 2004 Cooper Prize and the 2005 Pushcart Prize. These are beautiful stories, ripe with the vision of a mature artist.

These astonishing stories deal with people in crisis or at a turning point in their lives. Possessed by moods they barely understand, these characters confront moments of choice that determine their identities or their self-worth. Typically, they are not equal to such moments, and the stories—which range from Palm Beach to Paris to the poet Robert Lowell’s New York City hotel room—trace the designs, delusions, and sometimes the painful fluttering of souls in turmoil.