"Hilarious....captures perfectly the myriad stages of fear, discovery and elation that mark one's first sexual experience."The New York Times Book Review, Katherine Dieckmann, 16 July 2000 " W]ell-crafted stories recall the witty phrasing of Updike, the poignant nostalgia of Cheever, the earnest but confused innocence of Salinger."--Library Journal "Featuring a New York that, like Kundera's Prague, is a vast hive of seductions....A moving portrait."--Publishers Weekly, 17 April 2000 "The gentle humor and delicacy of Sleep-Over Artist remind me of the...

In "Seduction Theory," Thomas Beller writes of lonely friends and groping lovers, of awkward dates and dreamy yearnings of young adults caught in the lights of modern Manhattan. These ten stories capture those moments that change our lives and those that slip past us forever.

Acclaimed fiction writer Thomas Beller digs deep into his own history in this humorous and insightful collection about the state of masculinity. With sharp and engaging eloquence he discourses on T-shirts; being your mother's date at the Academy Awards; life at a bagel factory; the irrational pleasures of old American cars--and the mysterious disappearance of the author's own particular vehicle from a street in downtown Manhattan; love, sex, and breakups in an office environment; the social ecology of street basketball--including the sudden peril befalling a particular court in Manhattan and...