I had a love/hate relationship with Lucky Girls. And to be fair it is a somewhat complicated relationship and one that bares responsibility towards my thoughts and feelings about the book. First, I should let you know that the main reason the book was kind of "thumbing my nose" at the greater writing establishment of New York. As some of you may know Ms. Freudenberger wrote a piece of fiction for the New Yorker and set off a fury with that writing establishment. Since far too much has been made of this story I am going to avoid it suffice to say that I would be fascinated to hear the experience from Ms. Freudenberger, if the opportunity allows.

My love/hate relationship was due to the fact that Ms. Freudenberger is a good writer, even a very good writer. She has an innate ability to suck the reader (me) into a story (there are five in total) which begins in the middle of the tale. I generally find this type of writing extremely annoying at best and arrogant at worst. But for reasons I am totally comfortable at admitting my ignorance to, I was drawn in and was intensely curious to discover where she took the characters next. That is where the love part of my relationship to this book came.

The hate part came at the end of the story. While, thankfully, she avoided simply dropping the story off mid-tale in a manner that tends to illicit bouts of rage in me (if you are in need of a reference ask me someday about the novels of David Gemmell, that continue to frustrate me even though I am addicted to them), Ms. Freudenberger did end these stories far too early for my taste. To be fair, I am a bit of sucker for a nice neatly wrapped predictable ending. The problem is that Ms. Freudenberger is simply too good a writer to cheapen her tales to my obviously barbarian tastes.

What attests to her skill is that I was able to appreciate and feel for every woman in her stories. The main reason this is so impressive is that I am quite the opposite of the young women trying to find themselves and their path through their travels in Southeast Asia. I’m an officer in the Army for goodness sakes, what the hell do I know about women in their 20s trying find themselves (except that an ex-girlfriend once told me that was why we needed to break up, I remain confused about that one to this day). Despite my own background, the writing in Lucky Girls is such that it did not matter, I cared deeply about the characters and their journeys in spite of myself.

On that note, I heartily recommend anyone interested in more than light summer read to go buy the book. I do however, have two recommendations when reading. The first is make certain when you start reading a story you have the time to finish it. These stories are just too good to stop in the middle of them and I would be remiss in my responsibility if I did not give you fair warning.

The second recommendation I have is not read this book while you are in an intense situation yourself, like say, a war. I read the last four stories while in Iraq (shameless plug here: read my other story in the Square Table on Iraq) and that proved to be a little challenging. I’m not saying that reading while under a mortar attack is not a delight, I mean it has its charms if for no other reason than it makes for a good story. I am saying that Ms. Freudenberger writes about some very intense experiences such as the young woman who was raped in Thailand by her boyfriend only to write off the experience as a "cultural thing." I have to admit after reading that story I seriously considered choking the nice man from Thailand that worked at the Burger King in Iraq on principle but he left off the tomato and mayonnaise from my Whopper so he was spared.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It has poise, charm, and grace. Ms. Freudenberger has the amazing ability to make the reader actively care about characters that she has given only the vaguest of details. Few writers, I think could have pulled this style off but she seems to accomplish this with little effort. I, for one, am excited that someday there may be another book which am I certain will suck me right in.