Elated by Details

In Elated By Details, Freedman pokes fun at the American obsession with reinventing ourselves - an obsession lately seen in the rash of "makeover" TV shows. The characters of these diverse stories know that life holds something better for them, and they're determined to get it. With mischief and cunning, they search for escape routes from the schools, jobs, and relationships that seem to hold them back. What they find are ever more creative ways to avoid the messy business of growing up.

In the title story, a precocious student looks to break free from his Midwestern family while visiting a college. In Plodgett Revisited, a young lawyer gambles his career to win over a pampered heiress. Abroad at Christmas features a witty divorcée who travels to the end of the world to find a real man. In these and other stories, "coming of age" is not a once-in-a-lifetime event, but the constant battle between our grandiose ideas and hard reality.

Elated By Details won the first place in Mayhaven Publishing's Sixth Annual Fiction Competition. With droll banter and ingenious wordplay, this debut book offers an hilarious send-up of permanent adolescence.