Donald J Greiner"s provocative new study evaluates the fiction of ten contemporary female novelists to ask questions about gender relations in American fiction. Looking closely att the reaction of female writers to what Greiner describes as a central paradigm of American literature-men bonding in the wilderness in an attempt to escape women and the social restrictions they represent-Greiner contends that female novelists have not only adopted it so that women venture into the wilderness while excluding men from the quest.