Bad Guys: Women's Tales from the Relationship Front

Although the title of this first book suggests something in the self-help genre, freelance magazine writer Hersey emphasizes early on that there are no pat solutions to resisting the allure of--or reforming--a ``bad guy.'' (``Men do change,'' says Hersey, ``but it's been my experience that they have to do it for--and by--themselves.'') Instead, the book, which is organized around 49 first-person accounts from women and punctuated by the author's empathetic and often inciteful musings, serves only to point out that bad guys abound--and that unlike their film counterparts, are not identified by foreboding music or creepy camera angles. Hersey divides the men in question into three categories--aggressive men, wounded men and hot/cold men--and 12 subcategories. The personal stories are moving, running the gamut from whirlwind affairs abruptly and painfully ended, to abusive long-term relationships. One interviewee likens her own experience in an unhappy romance to returning to an empty refrigerator: ``It's that hopeful thought: This time when I open it, something will be in there.'' Women who feel themselves victimized by their lovers may take heart in knowing they are not alone and from the author's parting ``wish'': that readers not wallow in self-recrimination for falling prey to a bad guy. Author tour. (May)