cover image A Field Guide to Impossible Men

A Field Guide to Impossible Men

Linda Stasi. St. Martin's Press, $6.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-00990-8

This is just what single women don't need: another contribution to the ""all men are jerks'' genre of self-help literature. Divided into chapters such as ``Mogul in His Own Time (AKA: Desperado),'' ``No Shame/No Gain,'' ``Born to Bank'' and ``Mama-Son,'' this book reduces men to stereotypes and promotes the notion that men are the enemy and completely unfathomable. What is worse, however, is that Stasi isn't that funny. In fact, behind her detailed classifications of ``impossible men'' there apparently lies a bitterness and anger that informs the sarcasm but doesn't elevate it. Insight and the redemptive, healing and fun properties of humor and irony are not present here, leaving brittle cliches. (November)