Looking for a certain short story

[AuntShecky]

A theme in poem recently posted by qimissung reminded me of a published short story which I'd read about 20 years ago. I don't know which year!

The author was female, and I can't remember who it was, but I'm guessing a well-known name, like Lorrie Moore or Bobby Ann Mason, but not Margaret Atwood or Alice Munro. I'm pretty sure the author is American or Canadian, not British. The story definitely falls under the sub-genre of "feminist Literature."

The title was something like ""Boys," "Boyfriends," or "Men I Have Known." The language was very explicit in certain sections, but in a D.H. Lawrence-type kind of sensuality, not porno. The story could be a poster child for "redeeming social qualities," but the moral is implicit, not spelled out.

The first-person narrator recounts every single romantic encounter she'd experienced from childhood to adulthood, stated matter-of-factly, not a whine in the entire story. Even though every one of these episodes were so-called "consensual" the reader gets the feeling that the narrator/protagonist has been exploited by the opposite sex for her entire life.

I'm certain I read the story in a anthology of prize-winning stories, either The Pushcart Prize or the Best Short Stories of 19??

Does this story ring a bell to anybody out there?

[Virgil]

Aunty, I don't know the story, but a DH Lawrence type of relationship suggests to me Joyce Carol Oats. You might want to d a search of her stories. But be aware she is such a prolific author that it could take you a long time to go through them.

[AuntShecky]

Thanks, Virgil. Nah, it's not Joyce Carol Oates, though it was a good guess. There's a similar theme in one of her stories -- "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" which became the 1985 movie, Smooth Talk starring Laura Dern.


I spent too much time on "the Google" searching this story yesterday. There were sites having selling Pushcart Prize anthologies as well as the "O. Henry Award Best Stories of the Year," etc. but the tables of contents which I did find didn't really tell me much. I don't think the story is "The
Company of Men" by Jan Ellison, because I read the story years ago and Jan's success was too recent (2007.)

(Added a few minutes later):

I'm 80% sure that the story is "Willing" by Lorrie Moore that originally appeared in The New Yorker as well as The Best American Short Stories of 1991.
We can't access the text on line, but that's fine.

Thanks, Virgil