TAKING IT TO HEART

A smartly written 1995 debut collection of eight stories, by the French author of the novel Sans Moi (2001). Desplechin’s characters are women involved, or seeking relationships, with the men who usually thwart, disappoint, or perplex them. What gives the collection its freshness is their bluff resilience. The bedraggled single mother who cocks a skeptical eye at her blasé lover (in “An Important Question”); the woman (in “Something’s Wrong”) who gets along quite well, thank you, without her uncommunicative boyfriend; and the title story’s chastened Bénedicte, whose dying grandmother teaches her that we can persevere, and manage happiness: they’re all feisty, likable survivors, and Desplechin’s economical portrayals of their failures and successes are consistently winning.