Taddeo, Lisa

These nine short stories highlighting women’s desires, judgments, obsessions, and frustrations are intriguing, but somewhat uneven. A solid, if nonessential purchase for most libraries.

Frank, acidulous, surprisingly twisty, and blazing with desire that’s often dangerous or misplaced; just the sort of uneasy reading that Taddeo always delivers.

Offering a gutsily refocused look at the male–female power exchange, Taddeo brings Joan to awareness and some agency, challenging women to reconsider assumptions and desires framed by men even as she viscerally registers all the reasons for women’s anger. A brilliant if uncomfortable provocation, sometimes messily intense but willing to take risks; likely to stir talk--and argument.

Readers of women’s history and of memoir will be better served elsewhere.