In author Meg Wolitzer’s latest novel, “The Uncoupling,” the women in an American town begin to lose interest in their men after a local high school performs Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” a comedy featuring a revolt instigated by women.

Throughout Kornel’s stories and the narrator’s recollections, the beautiful is juxtaposed with irritation, boredom, and violence; Kosztolányi favors sweeping statements with fanciful specifics.