LOVE BRAIN & OTHER MINEFIELDS

In Collenette’s collection of poetry and short stories, a series of men contend with disappointment, death, and heartbreak as they attempt to find and preserve love.

Over the course of 37 pieces, the author tells tales of varyingly hapless men as they attempt to navigate their way through a series of relationships they can’t quite grasp. “WTF?” sees an all-male rowing crew helping their teammate repair his marriage. “Ingling” follows an English expatriate living in California as he contends with his wife and mother vying for the role of family matriarch. Both “Mister Speedy” and “Two Left Feet and a Motorcycle” feature men who take out personal ads after getting dumped. After finding his footing in his first few stories, the author begins to explore the nuances of the relationships that his male narrators and protagonists, for the most part, fight to maintain. In “Scent,” Jason and Emily’s love is able to live on—albeit briefly—after the latter’s sudden death in a train crash. Collenette explores the complicated ties between parents and their children in “You Never Know When,” “Angelface,” and “Gray.” Poems interspersed throughout explore various subjects, such as using science as a metaphor for love and death in “String Theory” and the relationship between reader and writer in “Body of Work.” Many stories find their emotional power in endings and reminiscences; relationships end and people die, but Collenette’s characters live on in memories. The collection closes with a reminder to hold loved ones close in “Fragile.”

The author sometimes straightforwardly explores how men try—and often fail—to recognize the experiences and struggles of women. In “Shame,” for instance, a man attending a writers’ workshop full of women apologizes for what so many men have put women through, and he’s surprised to find his words recognized and understood. This is an intriguing premise, although such dramatic embellishments run the risk of flattening characterization and deadening nuances that, at other points, stories manage to capture. In “The Suitcase,” for example, Simon’s inability to perceive his own failings while actively judging those of others is both humorous and relatable, but the car salesman in “Paradise Motors” feels more like a parody than a person. Many poems lack clarity and resonance. There are moments of genuine emotional insight in the stories, though, particularly when the author addresses parenthood and family. Readers see one father recall stories that he used to read to his now-grown daughter, another attempt to shield his child from the reality of his wife’s cancer, and another struggle to connect with a son who’s ashamed of him: “Kevin. Son, I know you aren’t very proud of your old man. I know that. Me neither, truth told.” Such moments sting with the halting love of a strained relationship that neither side seems able to change, and this—more than differences in gender or absurdities of male misunderstanding—is where the true heart of the collection appears to lie.

A mixed bag of stories and poems that, at their strongest, are affecting and insightful.