Trouble With Girls - Hardcover

Boswell, Marshall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565123441 ISBN 13: 9781565123441

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2003

Synopsis

This is about Parker, from Memphis, who is trying to become a man. He's twelve going on thirteen when we first meet him and suffering through an inning of Little League baseball. He's playing right field, in position and praying a ball won't come his way. It's a scene that sets the theme of his young life-he's ready, but he's terrified.

Parker's progress through middle-class life-high school, college, graduate school (he drops out), paying job in the real world (Atlanta at the millennium)-leads him to a lot of alarmingly seductive women who, more often than not, chew him up and spit him out. He hardly wants to admit it, but he has trouble with girls.

Then there's the one who doesn't spit him out-Rachel. In fact, Rachel's the only one he tries to dump. Sort of. He suggests seeing her only on an informal, between things basis, keeping-as far as sex goes-the options open.

Marshall Boswell's wry, beguiling first book is a canny portrait of a prototypical twenty-first century thirty-something American guy who's trying to balance sensitivity with good old-fashioned sensuality while he's on the make. Like a guy's guide to . . . well, hoping and flailing more than hunting and fishing. By the last story, Parker does catch that high hard one, but also comes to understand that it's Rachel, the prototypical twenty-first century thirty-something woman, who gets credit for the score.

About this title

Review

"Trouble with Girls is a brilliant evocation of what it is to be a young, clueless dude on the make. It's smart and stylish and horribly funny."* "Anyone who has staggered through the suburban 70s and 80s, be warned: we have found our poet laureate, and he is not going to spare us anything."

About the Author

Marshall Boswell grew up in Memphis and has moved back there to teach American literature at Rhodes College. He received his PhD from Emory University in Atlanta and has published short stories in a range of magazines, from Missouri Review to Playboy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1565123441
• ISBN 13: 9781565123441
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306