SOURCE: "Unfaithful to 34 Women," in The New York Times, March 6, 1973, sec. L, p. 39.

In the following assessment of Bought and Sold, Broyard faults the stories as "hackneyed, mechanical and unconvincing. "

A masochistic woman provokes her husband to violence and wonders whether, one day, she will die of joy. A neurotic mother insists that her Marxist son wants to murder his father and sleep with her. The wife of a rich man sells herself to strangers because her original "purchaser" no longer desires her. A woman about to commit suicide, for reasons not given, is interrupted by a telephone call inviting her to a party. Her dog barks at her leaving and she gives him the fatal barbiturates instead. A successful career type "hasn't time for love," so her unsuccessful twin sister acts as her stand-in. A pair of lovers try to eliminate platitudes from their conversation only to...