Over the course of these nine stories, Mary Rechner brings a frank, humorous, and ultimately illuminating narrative voice to the subjects of sex, marriage, family, and work. Resisting expected behaviors and received opinions, the protagonists of Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women fight to maintain their sense of self amid mounting personal and social pressure. Rechner captures the journey of women who came of age at the end of the twentieth century and then tumbled headlong-in families, careers, and friendship-into a bewildering new era.