We So Seldom Look on Love: Stories

If you have ever had romantic yearnings for a corpse, or imagined a prom queen boning ('scuse the pun) some embalmed remains, this books is for you. I have never experienced a mental pathology in a way that made me so wistful and contemplative, so empathetic and receptive and alive. Give it a try! This book will open you petal by petal, to the sun.

I picked this book up on a whim, and discovered a jewel. The stories humanize those made inhuman by society and its constraints, and at the same time show the deeply ingrained pain they endure due to their differences. For those who enjoy Katherine Dunn's darkness (so stunningly seen in Geek Love), this book should be your next read.

Though Sandman and White Bone are also very good, We So Seldom Look on Love is still my favorite. Gowdy somehow reminds me of Flannery O'Conner.

I'm not surprised - I knew Gowdy was an artist when I picked up her novel "Falling Angels" by accident. This book of short stories is an incredible and dizzying fall into the world of the bizarre - where everything that is off-the-wall, quirky, and unacceptable, becomes normal, textured, and sprinkled with a bit of reality - though not to the point of being ho-hum. Oh, no! Barbara Gowdy will grab you by the neck and MAKE you admit it's a beautiful world, filled with odd, gorgeous people. I love this author - she is the only writer I've ever known who revels and celebrates the crazy shapes and colours of the human animal.

Five Stars all the way