A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories

One critic described A BLIND MAN CAN SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU by Amy Bloom as a non-sentimental look at love. These stories are non-sentimental, but I want to stress the word 'love' because Amy Bloom writes about love. Once upon a time I taught church school and as part of my teacher training was exposed to the many ways the Greeks defined love. Although we were taught to stress the form of love called 'agape' with our students, I don't recall any discussion of love as unconditional. Agape as I understood it was detached love--the love one tries to have for a neighbor. Later in life, after a few hard knocks I discovered love was not about keeping people at arm's length. My son-in-law died of a heroin overdose. I was upset about the manner of his death and the affect of his living and dying on the lives of my daughter and grandchildren. In spite of all the "bad" things he had done, however, I discovered that I still loved him. One does not love another because of what they do or don't do, one just loves--unconditionally.Amy Bloom writes about unconditional love, which is the only kind of love there really is. Everything else is an illusion. She writes of the love of a stepmother for her stepson and his stepson; the love a lesbian for her married friend dying of cancer--and her love for her friend's husband. She writes of a mother's love for a dead baby and a boy nobody wants. She writes of love involving a physical connection that allows a mistress to help her dying lover. Love is tough and unconditional and it is possible to love more than one person. Bloom's prose is exquisite. He plots are tight and her characters well developed. She not only enables the reader to feel the sorrow and joy each character experiences, she portrays them so lovingly, you will recall many of them long afterward--an amazing feat for short stories. Anyone can be blindsided by love. Love leaves one disarmed and vulnerable, and sometimes it hurts like hell. In the end, it is the reason for living.

"A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You" by Amy Bloom is a wonderful collection of short-stories. Her brilliant use of language, texture, and storytelling lead the reader on a course of discovery. Each selection and character is well-rounded and multi dimensional. She doesn't cut corners on any story or persona that is expressed. She can tell a story like no one else. She has such a talent for condensing a very involved story and breaking it down to it's core and making it so powerful that you want to continue with them for years to come. You have a real belief that these characters that Bloom created are so strong, that they will survive even faced with the sad and difficult circumstances they faced. She makes you believe in compassion and ultimate success. A wonderful collection and well worth the money.

Author Amy Bloom continues to display mastery of the short story form. The collection of eight compelling stories is inhabited by real people, flawed and admirable, struggling to overcome obstacles confronted throughout life; the characters are revealed slowly and surely by an author who displays rare insight and compassion. The richly subtle photograph on the book jacket is a visual poem that speaks of both vulnerability and hope -- an image that reflects the insights of the psychotherapist/author.

Great books stay with you long after you've finished them.It's been two weeks since I read Amy Bloom's newest book and I simply can't get her stories out of my mind. Driving to vacation on the Cape, I started thinking about her characters Julia and Lionel, a mother and stepson who spent one horribly mistaken, horribly understandable night in bed together and continue to pay the price for years to come. Waiting for my dinner reservation,I looked around at all the romantic couples, and wondered how many were hiding the sort of pain and desperate erotic desire that ripples through Bloom's "The Gates Are Closing," a story about a woman who must confront her lover's gradual deterioration from Parkinson's disease. The truly startling thing about Bloom's stories is not the subject matter (transvestitism, incest, etc.), but the way the characters come so fully alive, you feel as if you've been given full access to their most intimate thoughts and feelings. At a time when more and more Americans are tuning in to "peeping t.v." shows like Survivor and Big Brother, I'd humbly suggest that we'd all fare much better by reading this short story collection because the chracters you'll encounter are far more complex and intriguing than any you'll find on television. Bloom distills the moments in life when we are at a rawest and most vulnerable. She paints our most human dilemmas with empathy and true artistry. Bloom possesses a wise overarching vision that makes the nitty-gritty aspects of life oddly, resonantly beautiful."Survior" is brain candy while this story collection is the meat and potatoes.