Falling in love. Falling out of love. Getting a job. Losing a job. Being too young. Being too old. Tess Slesinger's short stories deal with themes as timely as the day they were written. Though an activist in radical politics, her foremost concern was always with the hopes, fears, foibles, and needs of individual men and women. Her gift for subtle observation and gentle satire make the stories in TIME: THE PRESENT richly pleasurable on first reading—and deeply rewarding to revisit.

With an introduction by Vivian Gornick and an afterward by Paula Rabinowitz