Kirjahaku

While staying abroad during her holiday as a guest of L le, the Visitor is beckoned each day, by the women from the summer houses, to break bread and provide a very specifi c form of entertainment. The Visitor is summoned by the women specifically for the purpose of relaying the stories of her four husbands. As the Visitor relies on L le and her daughters to translate the stories of each romance, marriage, heartbreak and divorce, she silently interweaves observations about her new friends against the backdrop of each husband and she mentally goes back in time to ponder loves that were lost. The women beg for all details as the Visitor conveys experiences of emotion, passion, and sexual freedom; experiences which seem to be elusive to her new friends - or has the Visitor underestimated these women? What the Visitor has not told L le is that the holiday has also brought a hot new and clandestine romance. Could this be husband number five?

A cruise is an experience most people find excitingan enjoyable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. For one woman, however, it is sheer hell. Before the cruise, however, she is an American on her first trip to Edinburgh, where she chats with a man in a coffee shop for less than an hour. Although she feels a strong connection, afterward, she goes on her way. But once shes back home, she cant stop thinking about him. Was it a missed chance? She has to go backand so her friend Bimsa convinces her that the only way to get there is by cruise ship. Trapped, crowded, and huddled in with bizarre people who drive her crazy and stuck in circumstances only slightly better than a bad case of hemorrhoids, the heroine is happy to drown herself in scotch. In spite of the insanity, however, she is motivated to reach the other side of the pond, where she will revisit that one perfect moment in timemaybe. In this novella, after a random encounter with a man while on a trip to Scotland, a young woman is persuaded to take a cruise to go back, despite her hatred of cruise ships.

When the Lollies Bloom continues the stories of travel and love begun in Bert Bartz's Idiotsynchrasies. While telling other women stories of her journeys and about the travellers she meets along the way, Bartz's nameless narrator finds her attention wandering to past loves and recent romantic encounters. There's Mr. Greysuit, the accomplished and sophisticated older man she finds enticing, so much so that she's all but forgotten about her alluring and sensual Mr. T. At least, she forgets about him unless he's present in all his seductive glory. Two loves might be more than enough, but she's not bounded by limitations. There's also the Boy, a man by age but not by experience. He's young, eager, and a constant temptation. The three men are an ever-present distraction as she moves through corporate America, a world she once loved but is now disillusioned. How will she continue in the outdated corporate culture while still operating on amusing practices of nonsense? She's more than ready for a change. Mr. Greysuit, Mr. T, and the Boy. One of them might be able to convince her to abandon corporate life for a new world, but which one? And equally important, how can she possibly choose? All three are loving, sensual, and worthy in their own way.