cover image Unlisted Lives: A True Story of Seven Women

Unlisted Lives: A True Story of Seven Women

Anne Flaherty. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, $0 (319pp) ISBN 978-0-8092-5436-1

Seven women whose lives and degree of happiness were supposedly defined and controlled by men are the subjects of this reportage by a columnist for Family Weekly. In a variety of self-destructive ways, including suicide, the women cope with abandonment by husbands and lovers, forming a loosely structured group in a Texas apartment complex described as ""a displaced persons' camp for women alone.'' Vignettes of the individual women reveal them as refugees from a sexual combat zone. Their backgrounds cover the spectrum of American society; their ages span two generations; they desperately seek anchor for their floating existence. Yet despite their factual base, these stories have little to offer as role models for others in distress at becoming suddenly man-less. (July)