The Loss Of Innocence

by Jay Mandal

Anyone who has ever loved - or wanted to love and be loved - will relish this book The Loss of Innocence continues the theme from Jay Mandal's earlier collection, A Different Kind of Love, of love found and, sometimes lost, together with the innocence of the people involved. Some of the stories are heart-warming, while others would break your heart. Jay writes with tenderness, humour, and compassion for his fellow man. Readers will identify and sympathise with the characters in this book. Here we have a collection of poignant short stories ranging from a two minute read to longer stories of ordinary people leading ordinary lives until they fall in love and their lives become, for a little while at least, extraordinary.

Genres: Anthologies, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2003

Reviews

[Indie Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Loss of Innocence is a compilation of twenty-eight short stories by acclaimed British author Jay Mandal. The stories are of varying lengths, some averaging ten pages while others offer vignettes of one or two pages. The overarching themes of this collection are the quest for and loss of love with the full array of accompanying human emotions, including, loneliness, insecurity, longing, fear, hope and joy.

The stories are not contextualized. Instead they provide the reader with an intimate glimpse into slices of gay life and love through exemplary dialogue and narration throughout. It is as if the reader is invited to listen in on a series of conversations and exchanges between the protagonists of each story, with dialogue that is so well crafted it serves as the main source of characterization.

The book summary is most accurate in its description of this compilation of stories in that they are poignant and written with a tender, compassionate and thoughtful hand. Some are indeed humorous and whimsical and will have you laughing out loud, some are bittersweet and yet others are heart breaking. In this sense, this collection is a testament to the full spectrum of realities of gay life, love and relationships.

The complete review of The Loss of Innocence by Jay Mandal is available at Indie Reviews.