The varieties of romantic experience

Blurb

The title of Robert Cohen's collection, The Varieties of Romantic Experience, should have included the word anxiety, because it is this fretful, uncertain, and mildly deranging condition that most recurs in these 10 short stories. The brilliant title story, a first-person monologue delivered by a psychology professor in the bleating throes of a midlife crisis, is as much about anxiety as about hopeless love. First-person narrative and the depiction of emotional duress seem to be Cohen's special talent. In "Adult Education," the unnamed narrator tries to convince his lover that he is not ready for the baby she carries: "You are so right that this is not whims [sic]. This is a solid object with some fluids in it, one that will eventually become more and more solid despite having more and more fluids in it, and pretty soon according to what I have heard from other people all these solids and fluids are going to drive us right out of this life of ours that's been going on so well without them." The best story in the book may be "Oscillations," first published in The Paris Review, about the development of a speech impairment, and the consolations of science and reflection offered by a long sojourn in a behavioral research institute. Although abrupt at times, tacking unexpectedly, Cohen's agile prose is the perfect vehicle for his quirky, order-seeking vision. This is a playful, distinguished collection. --Regina Marler