What do you think?
Rate this book
Reunion
From a small French city to a park outside the neon glitz of Tokyo, and beyond, these interconnected stories follow the adventures of Brian, Ondrej, Yuji, Jason, and others as they navigate the tumultuous path of life and love.
A small French city. A park near Tokyo. The Czech countryside. London at night. Lost loves and found loves. Fear and courage. Reflections. Rejections. Reconciliations. Romance. These interconnected stories follow the adventures of Brian, Ondrej, Yuji, Jason, and others as they navigate the tumultuous path of life and love.
A small French city. A park near Tokyo. The Czech countryside. London at night. Lost loves and found loves. Fear and courage. Reflections. Rejections. Reconciliations. Romance. These interconnected stories follow the adventures of Brian, Ondrej, Yuji, Jason, and others as they navigate the tumultuous path of life and love.
- GenresM M RomanceRomance
ebook
First published May 26, 2012
56 people want to read
About the author
Barry Brennessel
32 books42 followersWhen Barry’s first collection of stories was read aloud by his second grade teacher, the author hid. As the years flew by, he wrote more, hid less (not really), and branched out to Super 8 films and cassette tape recorders. Barry’s audience—consisting solely of friends and family—were both amused and bemused.
Since those childhood days, Barry has earned degrees in English and French from the State University of New York College at Brockport, and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University.
Tinseltown, a Finalist in the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, is Barry’s first novel. His novel The Celestial won the Gold Medal in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards and was a Finalist in the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. Reunion, a collection of linked stories, was a Finalist in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.
His work has appeared in SNReview, Perspectives, Time Pilot, Liquid Ohio, Nocturnal Lyric, Midnight Times, Gival Press’s ArLiJo, and Polari Journal. His stories, novels and teleplays have won awards, including a 2008 Pushcart Prize nomination; 3rd Place in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) literary contest and finalist status in the 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013 PNWA contests; 3rd Place in the 79th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and a winning entry in the 2013 WILDSound Screenplay competition.
When not embroiled in his own writing, Barry sips wine, nibbles on chocolate, and watches films and TV—both the classic and the cheesy. (Mmm…cheese!)
http://barrybrennessel.com/
Since those childhood days, Barry has earned degrees in English and French from the State University of New York College at Brockport, and a Master of Arts in Writing from the Johns Hopkins University.
Tinseltown, a Finalist in the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, is Barry’s first novel. His novel The Celestial won the Gold Medal in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards and was a Finalist in the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. Reunion, a collection of linked stories, was a Finalist in the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.
His work has appeared in SNReview, Perspectives, Time Pilot, Liquid Ohio, Nocturnal Lyric, Midnight Times, Gival Press’s ArLiJo, and Polari Journal. His stories, novels and teleplays have won awards, including a 2008 Pushcart Prize nomination; 3rd Place in the 2010 Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA) literary contest and finalist status in the 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013 PNWA contests; 3rd Place in the 79th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition and a winning entry in the 2013 WILDSound Screenplay competition.
When not embroiled in his own writing, Barry sips wine, nibbles on chocolate, and watches films and TV—both the classic and the cheesy. (Mmm…cheese!)
http://barrybrennessel.com/
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 28, 2013
3,5 stars
When I was a student, I used to sit outside of a café with my friends (oooh, bad students!) and play at “grasping humanity”. The rule was to make a cup of coffee last as long as possible, to focus on passersby and feel as consciously as possible the fact that each anonymous face and silhouette was well and truly a being whose uniqueness crossed paths with ours for the blink of an eye, or longer if we chose to intervene. It might sound like a “duh” moment, but it was vertiginous, just like staring at a starry sky or thinking about infinity.
Anyway, I kept from this game a strong liking for movies and books about intercrossed destinies, and “Reunion” is a collection of short stories written at different times, but composing a very coherent ensemble of interwoven lives.
The book opens in France with “Ficelle” , a strange and short introduction that left me more confused than intrigued. In the next story and obviously a few years later, a young man is stubbornly chasing love from Tours in France to “Skin-Kiba Park” in Japan. Only a first name was needed to link this story to the first one, and I started paying attention to each character, even the most mundane, even the seemingly most insignificant passerby. Back to America, a woman wasted her life away, but a handsome “Marco...Polo” is enough to send her musing about body fluids and connection.
“She watched this man-boy in her living room and wondered whose lips his had touched. The biology and chemistry, the animal urges that would cause this sweet, friendly but serious young man to kneel on all fours, his penis hard, throbbing; his need to both connect with and lord over another body for a mere few minutes of selfish passion, and to what end, other than to feel semen squirt out of him as he grunted like a primate?”
Ow and eww! Is it all that there is to it? Is it what this is all about? Wether we’re with a rent boy in “Nagasaki” , make a detour by Czechoslovakia with “Unfinished” , get lost near the tube stop “Marble Arch” in UK, witness two former high school friends’ “Reunion” , or we cheer on a bullied boy learning to build a “Curtain Wall” , these stories of encounters, missed opportunities, lonely fantasies, all tell indeed of sexuality, of bodies and needs. They also tell of people seeking embrace, and this is what “Reunion” is about.
Along the course, I’ve met many characters. I will never know what happens next to some of them, I would have liked to know a little more about others, but all took part to the story that “Brothers and Sisters” , “the Visit” and “Coda” bring to full circle.
Why not 4 stars, then? I loved the concept of this book, but the stories didn’t all work for me on the same level. Some of them really touched me, others were too narrative - that is, telling too much and not showing enough - to my taste. In the end, though, they’re all proof of Mr Brennessel’s willingness and ability to tell stories and play at grasping humanity.
When I was a student, I used to sit outside of a café with my friends (oooh, bad students!) and play at “grasping humanity”. The rule was to make a cup of coffee last as long as possible, to focus on passersby and feel as consciously as possible the fact that each anonymous face and silhouette was well and truly a being whose uniqueness crossed paths with ours for the blink of an eye, or longer if we chose to intervene. It might sound like a “duh” moment, but it was vertiginous, just like staring at a starry sky or thinking about infinity.
Anyway, I kept from this game a strong liking for movies and books about intercrossed destinies, and “Reunion” is a collection of short stories written at different times, but composing a very coherent ensemble of interwoven lives.
The book opens in France with “Ficelle” , a strange and short introduction that left me more confused than intrigued. In the next story and obviously a few years later, a young man is stubbornly chasing love from Tours in France to “Skin-Kiba Park” in Japan. Only a first name was needed to link this story to the first one, and I started paying attention to each character, even the most mundane, even the seemingly most insignificant passerby. Back to America, a woman wasted her life away, but a handsome “Marco...Polo” is enough to send her musing about body fluids and connection.
“She watched this man-boy in her living room and wondered whose lips his had touched. The biology and chemistry, the animal urges that would cause this sweet, friendly but serious young man to kneel on all fours, his penis hard, throbbing; his need to both connect with and lord over another body for a mere few minutes of selfish passion, and to what end, other than to feel semen squirt out of him as he grunted like a primate?”
Ow and eww! Is it all that there is to it? Is it what this is all about? Wether we’re with a rent boy in “Nagasaki” , make a detour by Czechoslovakia with “Unfinished” , get lost near the tube stop “Marble Arch” in UK, witness two former high school friends’ “Reunion” , or we cheer on a bullied boy learning to build a “Curtain Wall” , these stories of encounters, missed opportunities, lonely fantasies, all tell indeed of sexuality, of bodies and needs. They also tell of people seeking embrace, and this is what “Reunion” is about.
Along the course, I’ve met many characters. I will never know what happens next to some of them, I would have liked to know a little more about others, but all took part to the story that “Brothers and Sisters” , “the Visit” and “Coda” bring to full circle.
Why not 4 stars, then? I loved the concept of this book, but the stories didn’t all work for me on the same level. Some of them really touched me, others were too narrative - that is, telling too much and not showing enough - to my taste. In the end, though, they’re all proof of Mr Brennessel’s willingness and ability to tell stories and play at grasping humanity.
February 12, 2015
Brennessel writes people, real fragile people, not the macho beautiful types who have everything hanging just right, who know just what to do, just what to say. No just us with all our hang ups, doubts, wins, losses, fucks ups etc. The kind of people I connected to because some instances were mirror like.
This is not a linear story, we get scenes from different people at different times, people who connect or try to connect with other people to form some type of whole. Shadows, each with our thoughts and fears wandering about (like Brian in France, Japan) looking for connections. Afraid to try, afraid to connect, afraid of hurting (like Jason and Kevin) but hopefully able to try like (Shiela). Just a pile of jig saw puzzle pieces, trying to find our right place in the picture. I felt the pain of the failed connections and like in my life I wonder why, so much need, attraction, want is left unconnected. But just like when you are doing a puzzle and you think a particular piece fits somewhere but then you realise that it fits better elsewhere, so it is here and in life.
BR with Irina – thanks for the connection
February 11, 2015
“I just want to be needed,” he might tell them all. “That pretty much sums it up.”
This book has reminded me of my first anime "5 centimeters per second" - it has similar structure and feel, and just as poignant and thought-provoking.
It consists of short stories with different protagonists but each one of them was connected to another at some point in their lives. We are told their short POVs and shown what impact they've had on the others in that passing moment.
The writing is beautiful and abstract, showing a picture on a bigger scale as well as that of every individual whose paths have been crossed.
It took me some time to get used to the style, but once I've worked out the pattern, I was fascinated.
Each story is subtle and full of meaning. It's about life and death, first love, loss, betrayal, old wounds, forgiveness, friendship, family, coming out and bullying. And of course - of hope, closure and Reunion...
***4.3 stars***
BR with Sofia - thank you ❤️
Highly recommend!
April 13, 2014
When you read a good short story, you glimpse character's lives and realize there's so much about them you will never know. When you read a *great* short story, you long to know more about them beyond the limited pages. When you read a *FANTASTIC* short story, you miss these characters before their tale concludes.
I missed these characters before their tales concluded.
I miss shabby Kevin from the story, Reunion. I want to know if Joel from The Curtain Wall will grow up okay. What about Don from Marble Arch - will his chemo treatment work? Did the British police listen to his complaint? (Beautiful ending to that story...)
I make no apology for loving characters who understand sadness. I want fictional lovers to be know sorrow - it makes their finding love all that sweeter. I never finished any of these stories bawling my eyes out. It's not that kind of sorrow. No, this is the kind of sorrow that makes you more compassionate and feel more kindly toward people, their messed-up motivations, their mistakes, the big screaming needs that sometimes block rational thought and behavior.
Brennessel carves out a world where each story is a sparkling gem next to another sparkling gem, making the finished collection a dazzling array of jewels cupped in your bare hands.
Read this.
I missed these characters before their tales concluded.
I miss shabby Kevin from the story, Reunion. I want to know if Joel from The Curtain Wall will grow up okay. What about Don from Marble Arch - will his chemo treatment work? Did the British police listen to his complaint? (Beautiful ending to that story...)
I make no apology for loving characters who understand sadness. I want fictional lovers to be know sorrow - it makes their finding love all that sweeter. I never finished any of these stories bawling my eyes out. It's not that kind of sorrow. No, this is the kind of sorrow that makes you more compassionate and feel more kindly toward people, their messed-up motivations, their mistakes, the big screaming needs that sometimes block rational thought and behavior.
Brennessel carves out a world where each story is a sparkling gem next to another sparkling gem, making the finished collection a dazzling array of jewels cupped in your bare hands.
Read this.
July 5, 2016
Review to come in a few days.
May 18, 2012
"Nagasaki" is by far one of the most poignant stories I've read in a very long time.
"Marco Polo" is devastatingly beautiful.
Brennessel is a strong writer.
"Marco Polo" is devastatingly beautiful.
Brennessel is a strong writer.
May 24, 2012
I'll add my kudos to the story Nagasaki that's been mentioned here. Brilliant.
I was gripped by Marble Arch. I really Didn't know where that one was headed. The character of Don swirled around in my head for a long time after I finished the story.
I was gripped by Marble Arch. I really Didn't know where that one was headed. The character of Don swirled around in my head for a long time after I finished the story.
June 2, 2012
3.5 stars
October 26, 2015
2012 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews