House of Desire

The story of the "Motherfucker" was interesting to say the least. It seemed odd for Aimee Bender to incorporate such a story as this considering what she usually writes about, this came across as being more normal. However, the ending was quite similar to the rest of the endings in many of her stories, that being of sad nature. The main character in this short story acts like this is some game to be played, but only with women who already have children, which makes his actions look all the more inappropriate. He does appear to have a motive for why he might be doing all of this and perhaps it is because he is missing something in his life. He doesn't really appear to have anything else really going for him besides having sex with mothers and then not returning their calls. Also, he might have had this happen to him where some woman who he liked essentially just used him for sex.

Nothing about this story seemed at all odd when compared to stories like "Ironhead" or "The Leading Man." It actually reminded me of the movie "Wedding Crashers" because is was pretty similar in its events. It is evident that the motherfucker is not fulfilling his life and he is doing this because he can, there really isn't any purpose. It isn't until the end that he is viewed as being unhappy, while the starlet is better off now. He seemed like he was in control of his life for the majority of the story, but at the end he just seems lost, like he has been doing so much but nothing has progressed in his life at all.
(David Roberts, Extra Credit)