Anthropologyby Dan Rhodes

Villard, 203 pp., $18.95

In Anthropology, Dan Rhodes makes one fact clear: The once-fierce war between the sexes has dwindled to helpless confusion. In 101 stories each 101 words long (less a gimmick than a limitation), Rhodes returns again and again to the theme of failed romance. These aren’t stories that go deep. Flippant and ironic, the narrator of this collection suffers from terminal hang-dog syndrome, unable to find a girl who’ll stick. The beautiful ones cheat, the mean ones clean out his bank account, the good ones die, the wilder ones become lesbians. Even the ones who stay disappoint. In “Fuji,” the narrator says, “I know she’s gorgeous, but when you get to know her she’s really just an ordinary girl.” But what comes after the arch, easily flung, ironic statement? Unfortunately, Rhodes never plumbs that kind of depth. Ultimately, these stories do little more than skim the surface of that ineffable mystery: what makes love last.

This article appears in September 22 • 2000.

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