Wifeshopping
Subtitle: stories
By: Steven Wingate
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
ISBN-13: 9780547053653
Subjects: Mate selection; Fiction
Description: An honest, absorbing debut fiction collection, Wifeshopping centers on the ultimate human quest: the search for companionship, love, and understanding. These captivating stories feature American men, love-starved and striving, who try and often fail to connect with the women they imagine could be their wives. Some of the women are fiancées, some are new girlfriends, some are strangers who cross the men's paths for only a few hours or moments. In "Beaching It," an artist traveling on the summer circuit begins an affair with a rich, married local. In "Me and Paul," a lonely traveler adopts an alter ego to help him impress a single mother. In "Bill," a trip to a flea market highlights the essential differences between a man and his fiancée. Throughout this thoroughly entertaining read, Wingate's sympathetic characterizations reveal both the hopefulness and the heartache behind our earnest but sometimes misguided attempts at intimacy.
Notes: "A Mariner original."
Table of contents: title: Beaching it; title: Me and Paul; title: The Balkan house; title: Inside the hole; title: A story about two prisoners; title: Meeting Grace; title: Faster; title: Dig for dollars; title: Bill; title: Three a.m. ambulance driver; title: Knuckles; title: Our last garage sale; title: In Flagstaff.