This collection of essays [Bachelor Girls] by Tony Award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein includes enjoyable, funny reading as well as satirical social commentary that is short and gossipy enough to keep even the most skeptical reader interested.

Wasserstein's view of the world includes everything from the stark and serious, such as her anxiety-ridden trip to Rumania—to the satirical, such as in her article "The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome: The New Agony of Single Men" a riotous takeoff on the horrible clamor that was created in the media during the mid-'80s regarding single women and their reduced chances of finding husbands. She's turned this around, saying, "Forty-year-old men are more likely to have a Pan Am 747 land on their head (than get married)!"

Other witty pieces include some personal ones about a relative's Bar Mitzvah, a humorous/serious tribute to the author's mother, Lola, and a wonderful trip Wasserstein took to Japan to view a Japanese version of her play, Isn't It Romantic. One unforgettable scene in her essay "Winner Take All" shows her sitting at her typewriter in her bathrobe, feeling incredibly sorry for herself when the phone rings and she's informed that she's just won a Pulitzer Prize for her play, The Heidi Chronicles.

Wasserstein also writes about women—she scathingly criticizes such things as fashion, private girls' schools, the shaving of legs and the manicuring of nails, and, of course, dieting, of which Wasserstein laments, "weight is the bane of my existence."

Two of the funniest essays in the book include "Perfect Women Who Are Bearable," in which Wasserstein gives us alternative lists of famous women who she either can't stand or who she admires—and "The World's Worst Boyfriends," a list that includes Rasputin. (It also includes Mel Gibson, but only because "he's a happily married family man. The impossible dream.")

A lot of Wasserstein's charm stems from her Brooklyn background, and she loves to talk about New York in general, comparing it to much more hideous places such as Los Angeles (she's uncomfortable on the West Coast.) Her chatty use of language reminds one of the hysterically funny cut-up in the girls' dorm (which she apparently once was), and her use of the term Bachelor Girl (she's unmarried and 40—God! Such a stigma!) throughout the book is her way of avenging those who are disdainful of or embarrassed for the unmarried (yet successful) woman. Readers familiar with Wasserstein through her essays on her plays will easily understand and enjoy this book. New readers will be entertained and, at the same time, pick up some clever insights.