cover image How to Love a Difficult Man

How to Love a Difficult Man

Nancy Good. St. Martin's Press, $14.95 (244pp) ISBN 978-0-312-00134-6

Manhattan psychotherapist Good bases her book on case studies of women patients with unsatisfactory mates. There is a strong suggestion that ""difficult''is redundant as applied to men here, since, notes the author, society encourages males to be demanding and females to be submissive. In spite of the feminist movement, past cultural patterns still influence and weaken intimate relationships, stresses Good. She writes about one husband who belittles his wife's accomplishments, another who changes from an ardent to an indifferent sexual partner, others who saddle their wives with the entire responsibility for care of home and family, etc. Good offers sensible advice on how to alter the behavior of difficult men so that women who love them can live with them. 35,000 first print-ing; $35,000 ad/promo; first serial to the Globe; Troll Book Club alternate. (March 23)