How Far Into the Trees

by Benjamin Ashton

Ben and Joshua met in their youth, working at a summer camp. More than fifteen years after their bitter sendoff, they meet again and spend a weekend together in a secluded house in Vermont, by Lake Champlain.

Switching back and forth between past and present, coasting on issues of class, gender, and identity, the novella explores the anguish and beauty of growing up and of getting older.

Genres: Gay

90 pages, ebook

First published March 3, 2015

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has an immersive writing style. One-sentence paragraphs can work…but his inability to correctly use, and order, adjectives and adverbs becomes grating.

The interspersions of the past throughout the current events function well.

Their intimacy, past and present, is engaging.

From teenage years to present day, Ben shows little growth. It’s a welcome contrast that Joshua has made strides in the direction of self-improvement.

It seems at some point that there would *be a point*. HEA, or even HFN, is not expected, but it does leave the reader wondering what he just read. Turns out, it simply furthers the canon of this author's other works--another notch on Ben's bedpost.

At the end of the day, the most accurate way to describe this story is existentialist self-indulgence.


“I understood his tacit wish to see…the spraying proof of the beauty of the moment.”

[Don Bradshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, talk about being blown away by a beautiful, smooth story. I'm thankful that Mr. Ashton needed to get his story out enough to self-publish. Told from Ben's POV, the story bounces the reader from Ben and Joshua's youthful fling at summer camp to the present where the two adult lovers can talk in depth about themselves. The guy's stories are touching and the directions that their lives took after those three short but intense weeks at camp taught them a lot. I liked both adult main characters immensely. It's rare that a book comes along that has older, mature main characters who truly communicate and walk away better people.

[Nathan Winssinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always thrilling to come across a book from an author you've never heard of, drawn by the cover and the elliptic blurb, and finding yourself fast engrossed and delighted in the reading. This book is one of those precious little finds. It's very short and benefits to be read in one sitting. It's a bittersweet, delicate music that tells a tale both moody and uplifting (i think, though much is often left to the reader's own interpretation).
It's a collection of moments, strung together by the narrator, and a musing on sex and intimacy. But the backbone is about two characters, never fully able to make something of their mutual attraction. The story unfolds in an interesting, back-and-forth nonlinear path and the parting words should hit you right in the heart.

[Felix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful story.

I read it for the first time years ago when it was posted somewhere online under the name 'Lake Champlain'.
Since then I embarked to find it again, and have read it several times. It hits me every time.

So sensitively and insightfully written, truly a hidden gem. There is an excellent tone to the writing, both melancholic and hopeful. A delicate meditation on the push and pulls of a secret young love, and a fork in the paths of two men which ultimately lead them back to one another, nostalgic for what can no longer be. A sense that the gravity between the two was betrayed by circumstance, subject to the misfortune of being placed in such a dimension whose course of events unjustly tore them apart.

[Zach Elfman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh the humanity. Two great, slightly messed up characters trying to connect. It's lovely and sweet on the surface, biting and harsh just below. There's also a refreshingly smart and spunky secondary female character and a page-long single sentence-paragraph of a sex scene that's kind of breathtaking. Great short/long story.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a story! This was a poignant tale about early love and finding yourself when you’re not quite ready to be found. There are some typos and repeated words, but I see that this is self-published, so it is really quite minor considering it didn’t go through a publisher. There was much emotion in each scene, and I could really feel the intensity of the feelings both characters experienced as the story moved between past and present. Not sure how I feel about that one sex scene being one run on paragraph that was about two pages long, but it was still visceral, emotional, and powerful, so nevermind me. 😝

I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to read more by this author.

[Taid Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a slow start the novel jumps back and forth in time from a summer of two young camp counselors who experiment with male-male sex to a sexual visit between two adult men who have faced some disappointments in life and compare recent experiences to their pre-college summer attempts at love during camp. The erotic memories in thought and discussions focus more on the behaviors' meanings to both men than on titillating readers. In the end, various moments that seem awkward are worth the read.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good short novel about the relationship of two gay men that jumps back and forth between present day and when they first met working at a summer camp. They've had no contact in the intervening years. The mature versions of their former selves are different enough that it's almost like having four separate main characters.

A frank novel with a story stripped of illusions.

[Gavin Stephenson-Jackman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reconnecting after 15 years was not something that Ben had expected. Joshua found Ben online and they're getting together for the weekend. They last saw each other while working at a summer camp. The story flipping back and forth from the intimacy they started at camp and the weekend together at Joshua's home on Lake Champlain. Despite the way things ended at camp they have real chemistry. It's too bad that the story doesn't take them further.

[Valentina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This authour was suggested to me from another authour, with whom I share a love for realistic stories, characters and feelings.
This book was a great reading and didn't disappoint.
Definitely worth reading

[Angel Pedroza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely, heartfelt novella. I wanted more it was that good.