Monday, Oct. 18, 1999

The Dangerous Husband

By ELIZABETH L. BLAND

Those looking for evidence that women have passed men on the evolutionary scale need look no further. The narrator of this dark satire is a sophisticated, self-aware photographer who, at 40, meets the perfect man: a charming, wealthy novelist. Shortly after their marriage, though, she finds he has turned into an oaf, banging around the house like a bull, routinely inflicting accidental injury. He never comes into focus, but the anger he arouses in his wife is all too clear.

--By Elizabeth L. Bland