Joel Rose

Edited by Joel Rose and Catherine Texier

These 16 stories (some previously published in magazines and other collections) are not your ordinary love stories: they include a woman attracted to her friend's 14-year-old son and a boy in love with his sister's Barbie doll. Particularly strong selections are Lynn McFall's story of jealous love set to melancholy country tunes from a jukebox; David B. Feinberg's world-weary tale of the breakup of two gay New York City hipsters; and Patrick McGrath's exploration of a love affair during the abdication of King Edward VIII. David Wojnarowicz provides a chilling account of a young hustler searching for some scraps of comfort. The collection starts unevenly but builds to a vigorous finish with compelling stories by Rose and Texier ( Love Me Tender ), who co-edited the fiction magazine Between C and D. The settings vary from urban to rural but the stories are always carefully balanced between imagination and reality. These writers don't hesitate to look at the darker side of love, and so the collection is imbued with the presence of violence and a sense of bewilderment at both the pain and pleasure of love.
-- Publisher's Weekly

CONTENTS

Introduction by Catherine Texier and Joel Rose
BITTER LOVE by Lynne McFall
ORDER AND FLUX IN NORTHHAMPTON by David Foster Wallace
A REAL DOLL by A.M. Holmes
EVERYBODY GOT THEIR OWN IDEA OF HOME by Barry Gifford
YELLOW ROSE by William T. Vollmann
THE BLACKMAN'S GUIDE TO SEDUCING WHITE WOMEN WITH THE AMAZING POWER OF VOODOO by Doctor Snakesking (Darius James)
CALISTA by Trey Ellis
LOVE LETTER TO MY RAPIST by Lisa Blaushild
BREAKING UP WITH ROGER by David B. Feinberg
SHIFTER by Lynne Tillman
THE KID by Daytona Beach
MY MOTHER by Kathy Acker
FROM THE DIARIES OF A WOLF BOY by David Wojnarowicz
THE REAL McCOY by Catherine Texier
MRS. VAUGHAN by Patrick McGRATH
LOVE'S LABORS LOST by Joel Rose