WELSH BOYS TOO

A debut collection of eight stories by a young Welsh writer examines such various aspects of gay male experience as a fearful adolescent’s disappointment by the male teacher from whom he expects understanding (“The Wonder at Seal Cave”) and a German woman’s sorrowful observation of her gay son’s experiences (“The Birds Don’t Sing . . .”). Sensitively written for the most part, but the stories occasionally strain to impress (e.g., the melodramatic “My Velvet Eyes”), and even the best are awfully sketchy.