What do Mad-Cow disease and dating woes have in common? Everything, according to Laura Zigman, author of ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. If you are a woman scorned, this is the book for you. If you have been dumped, are in the dumps and feeling oh-so-dumpy --- this book is ABOUT you!

So, crawl out of bed, put away the Kleenex, your journal and the scrapbook full of pictures and letters and pick up Zigman's humor-filled look at dating pitfalls.

In this missive against all-persons-male, Zigman doesn't pull any punches. The crux of the book is the theory that the "mate-'em-and-leave-'em" behavior of male animals is shared by human males as well. It's all part of "The New-Cow Theory," the centerpiece of Zigman's cathartic first novel. Her heroine, Jane Goodall --- "the overachieving prime time talk show producer" --- goes from new to old cow in a matter of weeks, deserted by her beloved "bull," Ray, without so much as an explanation.

Laura Zigman's single-minded assault on males of this and other species has been criticized by some as a one punch-line joke. But to me, Zigman and Jane's inordinate preoccupation with the New-Cow theory makes perfect sense. When you are left pining by the phone, not able to sleep, not even able to eke solace from a pint of Haagen-Dazs (chocolate chocolate chip doesn't dull the pain), your obsession with why he hasn't called is just that --- an obsession. You dissect your behavior, his behavior, what he said, what he meant to say, what he didn't say but you wished he would have said, ad infinitum. You are a slave to misery, you wallow in it, it consumes you --- as it does Jane Goodall, the sudden-Old-Cow in a world that prizes only the new.

Eventually, Zigman's heroine finds an outlet for her all-consuming angst. She analyzes men clinically, using her and her friend's failed relationships at case studies to bolster her fundamental theories about the human male. And, her theories ring true. You will experience deja-vu when you realize how the irrational behaviors of men in your life mirror the behavior of bulls, chimps and fruit flies.

If you are feeling abandoned, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY will be an empowering read. You will see that you are neither the first, nor the last, to be dumped and left reeling. You will find yourself chuckling, nodding in approval at revenge plots and feeling generally less alone. Moo-ve over New Cows, Old Cow's back in town!