In these nine surprising stories about love and the desertion of love, a father contemplates his bank balance amid receipts for ski vacations; a real-estate agent tries to sell a house while his small son bites other children; and a widower, resigned to television for company, discovers the pleasures of life with another woman. In Kevin Canty’s masterful collection, men convey the bitterness, tenderness, and humor of romantic relationships. Rarely is a man so revealing.