The story chronicles the multiple relationships of Nate Piven, a thirty something year old up and coming author living in Brooklyn, over the time between college and the present day. Nate has a problem that shouldn't be difficult to relate to--he can't live with women, but neither can he live without them. His situation is complicated by the fact that his primary relationship is with himself. His ability to participate equally in an intimate relationship is modestly impaired, and that impairment is greatly augmented by his need to endlessly analyze every aspect of every woman he encounters. It gets worse once he sleeps with them. It gets more complicated by the fact that while he has quite a few thoughts and impressions about women, he is largely unable to verbalize those in real life. Which is perhaps not a hindrance to his career as an author, but it makes him a difficult romantic entanglement.
The breadth of Nate's love affairs allows us to see the range of personalities that smart, well educated New Yorkers encompass, and while the story is told solely from Nate's perspective, we get a good idea of what his significant relationships entail. Ironically, while Nate is able to see that things he valued in high school he no longer finds attractive, he has a great deal of trouble operationalizing that insight into his choice of bed mates--leaving the reader unsurprised when his relationships collapse over time. The book is written in an amused tone, and it rarely hits an off tone. I wouldn't quiter agree with one reviewer that she is 'the Jane Austen' of our time, but she does share some of that appeal.
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