Throughout August, Rossner conveys the seriousness and excitement of psychoanalysis. Doctor and patient participate in a great cultural experiment, anatomizing the myths that shape consciousness and behavior. Disappointingly, when Lulu and Dawn are not thinking interesting psychoanalytic thoughts, their thoughts aren't very interesting. Rossner has imagined engrossing inner lives for her characters, but she hasn't matched them with equally sympathetic or compelling outer lives.

Love affairs take up a good deal of space in both women's lives…. These relationships are presented as heightened experience, but they come off just the opposite. Rossner doesn't show her characters feeling life more deeply while engaged with men; rather, she treats romance and mating as if they were ineluctably powerful experiences for women, givens she didn't have to authenticate.

Lulu and Dawn are curious about how they function but not about how society works, and they seldom mention events outside their immediate...