Summary

The short story “Difficult Women” starts with a section about loose women. The loose woman does not look up to her mother – rather, she wants to kill her mother or the parts of herself that resembles her mother. The loose woman never lives in the same place very long. She reminisces about an earnest boy she dated at 23, one who loved her with purpose and whom she shared extraordinary physical intimacy with. She breaks his heart, although she thinks about him often. When the loose woman visits the bar, she meets men dressed in fancy clothes with fancy job titles. She sits with people who know very little about her, trying to keep an atmosphere of indifference. The loose woman does not need to look in the mirror, because she has a very strong sense of who she is and what she stands...