Pretending the Bed Is a Raft

Pretending The Bed is a Raft, Nanci Kincaid, Algonquin Books, 1997

This is a group of stories about women and their (occasionally difficult) relationships with men. The one exception is about a male Thoreau scholar reluctant to leave the uncomfortable comfort of his wife for one of his female students. Another story is about the education and character-strengthening of the wife of a losing small-town football coach. Also included is the story of Norma June, a cosmetics addict who is aching to be noticed by the male next-door neighbor fooling around with her daughter. Another story is about a trio of women driving through a Colorado winter to pick up the ashes of the husband of one of the women who died in an auto accident.

All of these stories are moving, well done, and full of characters who could easily be a neighbor or relative anywhere. The title story, about a young wife and mother with terminal cancer who works through a list of Things To Do Before Death, actually reaches the rarefied atmosphere of Wow.