Book excerpt: "'Sexual perversity in Chicago' is about two young men, Bernie and Danny, and two young women, Deborah and Joan, trying to sort out their sex lives amid filing cabinets and the nervous regimentation of the singles bar scene. 'The duck variations' is a dialogue between two old men sitting on a park bench. The conversation turns to the mating habits of ducks, but soon begins to reveal their feelings about natural law, friendship, and death"--Back cover.