One that leaves me wanting for more but not in that tantalizing, show business adage way. Occasionally, I read a short story that feels short. Perfect little universes called into being at an author’s whim for a reader's delight. Many times, I read short stories that are satisfyingly, fascinatingly complete. There's some ambiguity, I guess, but they're laying it out in the open more or less.

But soon enough it’s a multimedia feeding frenzy, and everyone’s reading Bastard!And for Charlie, that’s a bitch. He’s Gone but Not Forgotten.” Charlie’s only hope is that Elaine will get bored and abandon the weekly column-a colorful litany of his failures as a partner, father, breadwinner, and lover-or that it won’t catch on. Then, before he’s settled in at his desk, another co-worker salutes Charlie with the title of Elaine’s new column: “Bastard!” A quick check online leads him to the column, the subtitle leaving little doubt as to what he’s in for: “Life with an Ex.

On Monday morning, it’s a smirk by a forgettable former lover that first clues him in that something’s wrong. Her editor and her legions of readers count on full disclosure from her, but what no one-least of all Charlie-anticipates, only a week after the couple decide to end their marriage, is the speed and inventiveness with which she begins to try him in the court of public opinion. Newspaper columnist Elaine Harris has always written about her life with husband Charlie.

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