Love Sketches

Love Sketches explores the sensuality of romance and the varieties and vagaries of love..Former colleagues, almost lovers, meet to discuss literature only to discover a yearning that rekindles their lost romance; teenagers infused with the early fl owering of romance struggle to maintain that romance against all odds; a young romantic learns a tragic lesson of love and redemption all too soon; an elderly professor devises a plan for one last try at romance; and amid an atmosphere rich in romance and sensuality two close friends reunite to reveal deep feelings theyve held for one another, feelings which went unnourished for those years they had convinced one another they were just friends.

Book Review

The fourteen stories in this collection bring us up close and personal with the many faces of love. These are more than sketches; these stories cover love's waterfront. The characters are ordinary, innocent, worldly and they are stopped short when they're tripped up by and succumb to love. The settings are varied - run-down apartment buildings, city offices, motel rooms, sleekly designed suburban homes, but the message is the same- regardless of age or class or means, love is acutely and intensely felt. There is romance but these are not simple romantic stories. The characters are complex, their lives are often adverse and conflicted, filled with guilt, anxiety and crises of conscience and there are no easy answers and few resolutions. The reader is sometimes forced to think beyond stereotypes- of age and class; we are often surprised by the turn of events, by sudden acts of tenderness. But the charge of love is everywhere, and the sensuality and sensuousness of the language is what stands out. There is a grace and lightness in the writing where a look, a touch, a sigh, a gesture between lovers allows the reader to be party to the ache and intimacy of the characters. Much is gleaned in these small gestures and much is left unsaid. Nature too plays a part- lovers walk through city parks, shelter under an umbrella in a rain shower, gaze out at lush trees though a huge glass window.

The stories are suffused with longing and in some an air of melancholy pervades. In `Close Friends' two friends - `almost lovers' once- meet again and realise that love has held up after many years. In `Claire' a lonely wife prepares for a rendezvous with a man she doesn't even like in her desperate need for connection. This `dirty realist' story is played out against a backdrop of strip malls and dollar shops, but it is Claire's inner dialogue and longing for union with her husband that leaves the greatest impression.

In `Bus Trip' and `The Graveyard of Romance' the sparse conversations and the minutiae of the daily lives of married couples are closely observed, and despite a lifetime of shared experiences and much compassion there is a palpable loneliness at the heart of these relationships. The Dance of Romance is a witty poignant glimpse of a 70 year Eng Lit professor as he comes to terms with the loss of his attractiveness to girls and women. `What I wanted was one last chance to push the pause button ...'

In the perfectly paced story `A Long Romance' Dalton, a rich, middle- class, forty-something year old is captivated by Joleen, a young office girl. The reader is prepared to suspect his motives but for a while it is Joleen we mistrust. Their unlikely love is conveyed skilfully though Joleen's unique voice with her Southern dialect and colloquialisms and her utter honesty, and when the tears come they are killer tears. There is nothing precious or sentimental here, but it is achingly moving....`I can't believe somebody like you could happen to somebody like me.'

The lovers in this collection are young, old, rich and poor, angry and vulnerable- love has indeed `many faces'. There are some happy endings but most of the characters are left to their uncertain lives, in sto