Marilyn Krysl's stories are distinguished by a sardonic knowledge of the world as it is, and a haunting awareness of the world as it could be.
In glittering prose, Krysl explores divisions between lovers, friends, and countrymen and finds new ways to reestablish those broken connections. Sometimes dreamlike and archetypal, other times topical and ironic, the stories in How to Accommodate Men mourn the fragmentation of our modern world and celebrate the compassionate gestures that offer hope.

New York Times review of How To Accomodate Men

The emotional fracture lines wrought by love, war and the battle of the sexes are illuminated in this intelligent, variegated story collection. In "Laissez-Faire," an aging beauty finds her marriage threatened by a gorgeous young woman, but her envy turns to sympathy and self-recognition when she glimpses her rival gazing unhappily at her reflection in a restroom mirror. This tale and the arch title story, about a Stepford Wife with a savvy hidden agenda, flash with caustic eloquence. Elsewhere, Marilyn Krysl neatly demonstrates her versatility. Four stories set in Sri Lanka during the violent Tamil Tiger uprising of the early 1980's explore how people live amid a brutal civil war, and Krysl proves to be as adept at writing about Sri Lankans--in "The Thing Around Them," a woman agonizes over putting her baby boy up for adoption in the West to save his life--as she is about foreign correspondents. In other stories, Americans find that political discord has echoes in their personal lives: in "The Girls of Fortress America," for example, an 11-year-old girl, obsessed with the Red Scare that has gripped her 1950's suburb, starts questioning her dream of becoming President. Confidently shifting between satire and lyricism, Krysl's potent, unflinching stories chart how conflict can become catharsis--and, happily, there's nothing accommodating about them. —Megan Harlan

Men like having money.

I never lend A money. He assumes I make less money than I do, pocket money. He has never seen me writing a check. He imagines my purse holds Kleenex, lipstick, a mirror. Though I buy the groceries and pay the rent, it does not seem so. The groceries seem simply to appear, and if we run out of butter—but we don’t. We’ll never run out of butter.

A believes he supports me. A goes to the liquor store and buys a case each of scotch, bourbon, gin. He feels like a big spender. When he buys a suit or fills the tank of his Subaru, he imagines he’s seeing to my welfare. He thinks he’s thinking of me. He feels protective and generous signing the receipt.

What I do is pay part of A’s bills on the sly. I pick charges he would rather forget: the ophthalmologist, the shrink, his account at the Wine Cellar, at Subaru Sales and Service. I am careful never to pay off an account—that he would notice. Instead I slip in a payment here and there, enough to make his monthly statement a pleasant surprise. He imagines that he has actually spent less than it seemed. And at the end of the month A has extra cash. Extra cash makes him feel expansive. He buys me three dozen roses. He buys me a naughty black lace teddy. He comes walking in like Menelaus back with the booty. He’s bought me an emerald bracelet he noticed I’d admire.

“Oh!” I say. “You shouldn’t have!”

1. To what degree does the book's title reflect its major themes?


Glamourpuss:

1. In "Laissez Faire" how does the imagery and rhetoric of market economics ("his stock is going up," etc.) impact the relationship between the narrator and her husband? The narrator and the young woman? How does the theme of aging affect the three characters?

2. In "Extinct Species" what ancient and familiar story is retold in contemporary setting? Is the story faithful to the original? How does it differ? How do both characters contribute to the degradation of the environment? How does this degradation play into their falling out?

3. In "Mercy" the use of fairy tale and nursery rhyme suggest an ideal world, but the story's events are far from ideal. We might see the story as an argument between "idealism" and "realism," illusion and reality. How does this "argument" play out in the narrator's perceptions? What does the theme of disobedience suggest about the power of cultural expectations? Is the title ironic?

4. Where and when does the story "In the Upper Reaches, Isis" take place? What is the nature of the wedding between the narrator and the pollinator?

5. In "How To Accommodate Men" how would your describe the narrator's personality? Is this a story of revenge? Self destruction? Co-dependence? Why isn't the narrator surprised when A announces he's leaving?

6. In "Glamourpuss" why must the narrator sacrifice her consort? What ancient myths does this practice suggest? How is this mythic pattern changed as the story progresses? Why must it change?


The Island:

1. These four stories which focus on civil war in the developing world suggest that these wars are fatally linked to the developed world. How?

2. What does "Iron Shard" imply about the lives of women in the developing world?

3. "The First Sentence" examines cross cultural communication and the intersection of this with sexual politics. What is the significance of the dinner scene? Why at the end of the story does the narrator change her mind about Lallith?

4. In "The Thing Around Them" why does Vasuki ignore Nadesan's warning about the world beyond the island? Is her decision to send her child out a good one? What is the significance of the alari flowers?

5. "Mine" examines two kinds of love. What are they? Which of the two protagonists, Elena or Mendis, is most privileged, most powerful?


Eatting God:

1. In "Distant Lights on Water" does Clayton emerge as a hero? Why, or why not? What underlying theme is reinforced by the light and water imagery? The band of men who "aren't police"--who are they? What is Cynthia's reaction to Clayton's actions? What is her function in the story?

2. In "The Girls of Fortress America" what is the relationship between Sandra and her father? Her mother? What is meant by a slowed down girl? What is the effect of the Cold War on Marlene? On Sandra? What is Judy's role in the story? Would you describe the relationship between Sandra and her father as another "Cold War"?

3. Is "Eating God" a comic or tragic story? What is the relation between "eating" and "God" in the story? What contrasting virtues do you see between thether and her advisor? What is the function of comic exaggeration and of parody in satire? What relevance does the story have to contemporary society?