I have been a fan of Siri Hustvedt since her amazing novel, What I Loved, which I loved. But since then, she has not attained the heights that novel reached. Unfortunately.

Mia has it all -- a PhD in comp lit, a job at Columbia, a reputation as a published, award winning poet. And yet, her husband's defection into the arms of a younger woman, a colleague with a good brain and limp shiny hair, sends Mia into a tailspin. This is the stuff of chicklit at its most self absorbent. As tht\e title infers, there are no men in this book any more than there are any inhabiting Mia's summer. She flees to her childhood home to be near her mother who is happily seeing out her years in an assisted living facility that sounds almost idyllic. The town of Bordon Minnesota seems to have more life going on than Mia's current home of Brooklyn, more opportunities for female bonding that occur immediately. Each aspect of Mia's life is fraught with promise. Her mother's five best friends are each representative of a type, the neighbor next door has a 3 year old that shows more promise than most, the seven teen aged students in her poetry seminar -- each environment is a hotbed of female cliche. What gives this book its originality is that there is some truly gorgeous writing here, even if not all of it is from Mia herself but from some of her idols in literature. I did enjoy this to a certain degree, but wish it had had more meat on its bones.