What About the Love Part? Stories

Infused with gleaming insight and exceptional grace, here is an affecting debut of ten loosely linked stories that speak volumes of truth about mothers and daughters, girlfriends, and the weird propensity of smart women to choose lousy boyfriends. What About the Love Part? charts the life of a woman named Abby through her challenges in dating, marriage, motherhood, divorce, friendship, and all the shadings in between. Stephanie Rosenfeld offers a delightful glimpse into a world that instantly looks familiar and invites us to feel at home.

In “Grasp Special Comb,” Abby, soon-to-be-divorced, is battling that elementary school scourge: head lice. While there are plenty of guides on how to deal with the vermin attacking her daughter, nothing warns about the effect it will have on her ability to deal with life’s other infestations. “Good for the Frog” and “To Sarah, Wherever You Are” are tributes to a childhood friend who helped Abby survive dating hell. From the boyfriend whose lovemaking spurs her to think “I could’ve gone to the gym” to the guy who tells her “I’m a hunter, and you’re the hunted,” Sarah’s support and insight into why Abby is drawn to such inappropriate men steers her back on track. In “Insects in Amber,” Abby wanders through a museum with her daughter, struck by all the ancient remains of animals in glass cases. Reminded of when she was a child and felt compelled to save everything, she wonders why she could never save relationships, save love this way.

Evocative, magnetic, and real, What About the Love Part? speaks to every woman’s search for a life rich in meaning, passion, and tenderness. Stephanie Rosenfeld captures it all with piercing clarity and a heartening wit.

Stephanie Rosenfeld has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.F.A from the University of Massachusetts. Her writing has been published in The Missouri Review, which included Rosenfeld in its list of “Ten Fiction Writers to Watch,” Northwest Review, and The Massachusetts Review. She now lives in Salt Lake City with her partner and her twelve-year-old daughter. Her first novel, Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu will be published in Spring 2003.