LOVERLESS LOVE

Guerin’s collection of short stories navigates sex and emotional intimacy.

The author presents 17 vignettes exploring the varying forms of intimacy possible between two or more persons. While sex plays a role in all of the stories to some extent, the true focus is often on the emotional connections between characters. In “Loverless Love,” an orchestra’s marketing director falls for an often-manic marketing consultant, and they spend the bulk of their relationship merely sleeping next to one another without having sex. In “Talking to a Nude for Seven Days,” a man named Jeremy spends one week indulging in conversation (and the occasional foreplay) with a nude woman. The author’s prose is at its most evocative as Jeremy refuses to go further with the woman: “When we touch each other, it feels like stacking gold coins one on top of the other, right between my hips. If we made love, I’m afraid it would be like knocking them all down.” In the most poignant tale, “Avant-Garde,” a woman named Irma meets an artist named Ernst who offers her thousands of dollars to play the central part in his performance piece, “Secretariat.” In the piece, Irma must sit nude atop a stuffed horse and type nonstop. What makes “Avant-Garde” moving is Irma’s feeling of purpose within the spectacle. As she becomes famous (and as she and Ernst become lovers) she is reticent to do anything that could take her away from “Secretariat.” Even as interest in the piece declines and she grows older, Irma cedes everything to her role as the typist. The story plays with themes of fame, legacy, and sacrifice, most evident in the dichotomy between Irma’s feelings of fulfillment and her ultimate fate, mocked and left with nothing. Unfortunately, many of the female characters risk of veering into “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” territory, functioning more like exhibits that the male protagonists aim to interpret than fully realized characters. Despite this, these stories feel intimate and personal and make for a unique and engaging collection.

A raw and detailed selection of tales exploring human relationships.