Bank's collection of short stories is an extended meditation on the trials of contemporary womanhood. She paints a compelling and insightful portrait of life at the end of the twentieth century. It is an era of confusion where relationships are burdened by people's fear of commitment and of being themselves. Even while the psychological implications of modern life are outlined, Bank keeps her stories light and entertaining.

Though clearly set in the contemporary world, Bank's stories all consider a timeless theme: the nature of love, romantic and familial. Behind the rhetoric of family values, Bank finds good reason to conserve the bonds of nuclear families. They are bedrocks of emotional security for those fortunate enough to have them.

Interested as Bank is in conserving family cohesiveness, she demands progressive changes in the workplace. The women she depicts are not valued purely for their talents or intelligence...