A Little Night Reading?

Fredrik Egerman's literary longing

Fredrik Egerman is middle-aged, respectable, and excruciatingly self-aware—so much so that he can’t begin to seduce his young wife without first rehearsing the scene in his head. In “Now,” his internal monologue charts a path through lust, anxiety, performance, and social etiquette. At its comic peak, he tries to solve his marital frustrations not with …