What do you think?
Rate this book
Paradise at Main & Elm
Can two young men rise above the ashes of their past to carve out a life for themselves, and can their friends and family do the same?
Adrian Stockwell and Ezra Cherevin both battle the fallout from their broken families. Yet each one's strategy is as different as each one's past. Adrian's childhood was left void by apathy; Ezra's upended by violence. The written word becomes their therapy, their escape. This shared passion for literature is the vehicle that brings them together.
But their journey is filled with personal and familial potholes.
Can these two young men carve out a life together by learning to navigate a sea of challenges? And can the people in their lives do the same?
Adrian Stockwell and Ezra Cherevin both battle the fallout from their broken families. Yet each one's strategy is as different as each one's past. Adrian's childhood was left void by apathy; Ezra's upended by violence. The written word becomes their therapy, their escape. This shared passion for literature is the vehicle that brings them together.
But their journey is filled with personal and familial potholes.
Can these two young men carve out a life together by learning to navigate a sea of challenges? And can the people in their lives do the same?
- GenresM M RomanceContemporary
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2012
2 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Barry Brennessel
31 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 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 16, 2013
**Kazza's On Top Down Under Book of the Year 2013**
http://ontopdownunderbookreviews.com/...
Paradise at Main & Elm is a perfectly named book. It is an absolutely riveting piece of writing. I did not want to put this book down at any stage. It is a romance set in amongst observational writing with a cast of (more than) a few secondary characters who are pivotal to the story. It is not a standard M/M book. It is beautifully written literary (LGBTQ) fiction.
I am at a loss for words to really describe this book. I guess I'll just say that the MC's, Adrian and Ezra, will stay with me for a very long time.
Ezra's childhood, his current life, never laboured just perfect to invest you in why he was where he was, and how he was who he was. Adrian the same.
Socio-economic circumstances don't change the fact that some people cannot parent and there are consequences. That neighbourhoods are full of dysfunction and yet people somehow survive in them.
Ezra did blame his aunt, though. The same way he blamed his mom for not being able to pick boyfriends who weren't the scum of the earth.
---
He felt hands and arms and elbows on him, now, as the bed rattled. He wanted his mother's face out of his head.
"I lied."
"About?"
"My grandfather named me after Pound. Because my grandfather was a fascist too, you know?"
"Okay, Ezra, okay."
A needle pricked his arm. He knew darkness was coming.
---
Toxic combination. Just as Thomson's poem had set the tone for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, so would "toxic combination" set the tone for the visit with his mother.
He (Adrian) turned onto Elm Street towards Paradise Avenue Extension.
God, I can't do this."
That flawed, scarred people can find each other with a chance for solace and comfort in one another. That a place, a moment in time can mean so much and bind us.
"Oh Ezra, are you in the apple orchard?"
Review at http://ontopdownunderbookreviews.com/...
will-return-to-later
December 2, 2013I think I have to put this aside for now. The writing is very competent and I like elements of it, but I'm having a really hard time with the non-linear timeline and the POV changes. This story is an overwhelming reading experience and I feel like it isn't quite what I was looking for or expecting. I think each of the characters are fascinating but I'm not getting how the story is coming together and I'm feeling a bit lost.
November 3, 2013
My heart goes to so many, but most to Ezra. Oh Ezra. Ezra.
November 5, 2013
4 Stars
A "Live Your Life, Buy The Book" Review
Adrian Stockwell (the guy who writes short stories) has been observing (and drooling over) Ezra Cherevin (the guy who writes poetry) in their Advanced Fiction Workshop course for a while. So when he runs into the quiet fellow student outside their Professor's office, he is more than happy when they strike up a conversation together, bonding over their shared dislike of the critiquing classes. Even better is when Ezra suggests they go find something to eat. Ezra takes Adrian to a place special to him, an orchard that Ezra' retreats to when he needs to get away from things. After a engaging in a range of discussions and just get to know each other, they say goodbye. Adrian is on cloud nine, the evening he spent with Ezra in the orchard has him gushing like a teenage girl to his best friend and ex, Noah. Shortly before this, Adrian had received a call from his mother informing him that he needed to go home to see her urgently, so he had arranged to drive there the following weekend. During the week, Adrian is disappointed when Ezra fails to show up for the critiquing class. As Ezra doesn't have a phone or internet, Adrian is forced to leave for his mother's without having seen Ezra since their previous get together.
Ezra hasn't had an easy life. He’d been through a lot just in the last year with moving to the city after declaring bankruptcy, sorting through his father’s things after he’d passed away, and working as a temporary file clerk through the New York State Job Program. His troubled childhood still impacts his life and he's dealing with a mental illness and the struggle with his own mind to keep up with his medication. So when he almost misses his bus on a stormy winter morning and ends up in an unfamiliar place, witness to dramatic events, things may be on a different path to what they seem.
Ezra maintains this aura of mystery throughout the book, nothing is ever really spelled out in regards to either his past or his mental illness - the information is given in a disjointed way, bit by bit, much how Ezra's mind is disjointed. It's obvious he has some mental issues that he takes medication for - some medical, some as a result of childhood traumas, the main one surrounding his mother's death. Adrian comes from money on both sides of his family but refuses to have anything to do with it, choosing to pay his own way through college. As far as he's concerned all it ever gave him was a predominately unhappy childhood spent in a private boarding school and a distant and unaffectionate mother more concerned with appearances than with her son. As a result, they have quite a combative relationship to say the least. “So shipping me off to some private school was supposed to be something so good for me. But you sent me out into a sea of strangers where I had my ass kicked on a daily basis. You never even bothered to check on me, and all this was right after my father was killed in a car crash, and at his funeral you wouldn’t even look at me, and I had to cry on Aunt Constance’s shoulder. And then I’m not even sure why the hell I was crying, because Dad was away from us so much and then when he was home all you two did was argue, and the first seven years of my life I spent with the nanny more than I saw both of you. And this was all supposed to be fixed by sending me to a school full of rich, spoiled bastards and throwing wads of money at me? Money from a bunch of dead relatives who had about as much warmth when they were alive as a marble statue?”
This book is a contemporary fiction, not a romance, although there is a budding romance in it. There's no happy ending, because their relationship is only at its inception.
The middle did drag a bit for me with the multiple of POVs from the residents of Paradise at Main and Elm. There are a lot of seemingly random POVs from minor characters that do eventually tie into the main plot following Adrian. While they may go towards building the character of Margaret, in particular, and even Adrian to a lesser degree, it did feel like they were bogging down the story. I couldn't help but think that we were going off on a tangent when all the interesting stuff was back over there. However, I did enjoy the writing and it still held my attention. There's a reveal at the end that I didn't see coming, either, and thought it was really well done.
I found this book quite intriguing. It's a snapshot that illustrates who the characters are, backed up with flashbacks that show what went into making them who they are. The book leans more towards Adrian's story, leaving a lot of Ezra's to be deduced from bits of information. While I would have liked to have more of his past a little more spelled out, I guess the idea is that it isn't meant to be that clear. It leaves him as a little bit of a mystery.
I really liked both Ezra and Adrian. They are two young men, both struggling with issues that have formed them. You can't help but think that maybe that'll be easier for them to do together, by the support and understanding they each give to the other. While their interactions together weren't many, they were very sweet and I really loved them. I also loved Adrian's letter to himself at the end at it also works really well as a kind of epilogue.
A "Live Your Life, Buy The Book" Review
Adrian Stockwell (the guy who writes short stories) has been observing (and drooling over) Ezra Cherevin (the guy who writes poetry) in their Advanced Fiction Workshop course for a while. So when he runs into the quiet fellow student outside their Professor's office, he is more than happy when they strike up a conversation together, bonding over their shared dislike of the critiquing classes. Even better is when Ezra suggests they go find something to eat. Ezra takes Adrian to a place special to him, an orchard that Ezra' retreats to when he needs to get away from things. After a engaging in a range of discussions and just get to know each other, they say goodbye. Adrian is on cloud nine, the evening he spent with Ezra in the orchard has him gushing like a teenage girl to his best friend and ex, Noah. Shortly before this, Adrian had received a call from his mother informing him that he needed to go home to see her urgently, so he had arranged to drive there the following weekend. During the week, Adrian is disappointed when Ezra fails to show up for the critiquing class. As Ezra doesn't have a phone or internet, Adrian is forced to leave for his mother's without having seen Ezra since their previous get together.
Ezra hasn't had an easy life. He’d been through a lot just in the last year with moving to the city after declaring bankruptcy, sorting through his father’s things after he’d passed away, and working as a temporary file clerk through the New York State Job Program. His troubled childhood still impacts his life and he's dealing with a mental illness and the struggle with his own mind to keep up with his medication. So when he almost misses his bus on a stormy winter morning and ends up in an unfamiliar place, witness to dramatic events, things may be on a different path to what they seem.
Ezra maintains this aura of mystery throughout the book, nothing is ever really spelled out in regards to either his past or his mental illness - the information is given in a disjointed way, bit by bit, much how Ezra's mind is disjointed. It's obvious he has some mental issues that he takes medication for - some medical, some as a result of childhood traumas, the main one surrounding his mother's death. Adrian comes from money on both sides of his family but refuses to have anything to do with it, choosing to pay his own way through college. As far as he's concerned all it ever gave him was a predominately unhappy childhood spent in a private boarding school and a distant and unaffectionate mother more concerned with appearances than with her son. As a result, they have quite a combative relationship to say the least. “So shipping me off to some private school was supposed to be something so good for me. But you sent me out into a sea of strangers where I had my ass kicked on a daily basis. You never even bothered to check on me, and all this was right after my father was killed in a car crash, and at his funeral you wouldn’t even look at me, and I had to cry on Aunt Constance’s shoulder. And then I’m not even sure why the hell I was crying, because Dad was away from us so much and then when he was home all you two did was argue, and the first seven years of my life I spent with the nanny more than I saw both of you. And this was all supposed to be fixed by sending me to a school full of rich, spoiled bastards and throwing wads of money at me? Money from a bunch of dead relatives who had about as much warmth when they were alive as a marble statue?”
This book is a contemporary fiction, not a romance, although there is a budding romance in it. There's no happy ending, because their relationship is only at its inception.
The middle did drag a bit for me with the multiple of POVs from the residents of Paradise at Main and Elm. There are a lot of seemingly random POVs from minor characters that do eventually tie into the main plot following Adrian. While they may go towards building the character of Margaret, in particular, and even Adrian to a lesser degree, it did feel like they were bogging down the story. I couldn't help but think that we were going off on a tangent when all the interesting stuff was back over there. However, I did enjoy the writing and it still held my attention. There's a reveal at the end that I didn't see coming, either, and thought it was really well done.
I found this book quite intriguing. It's a snapshot that illustrates who the characters are, backed up with flashbacks that show what went into making them who they are. The book leans more towards Adrian's story, leaving a lot of Ezra's to be deduced from bits of information. While I would have liked to have more of his past a little more spelled out, I guess the idea is that it isn't meant to be that clear. It leaves him as a little bit of a mystery.
I really liked both Ezra and Adrian. They are two young men, both struggling with issues that have formed them. You can't help but think that maybe that'll be easier for them to do together, by the support and understanding they each give to the other. While their interactions together weren't many, they were very sweet and I really loved them. I also loved Adrian's letter to himself at the end at it also works really well as a kind of epilogue.
November 6, 2013
This book is a contemporary fiction, not a romance, although there is a budding romance in it. There’s no happy ending, because their relationship is only at its inception.
The middle did drag a bit for me with the multiple of POVs from the residents of Paradise at Main and Elm. There are a lot of seemingly random POVs from minor characters that do eventually tie into the main plot following Adrian. While they may go towards building the character of Margaret, in particular, and even Adrian to a lesser degree, it did feel like they were bogging down the story. I couldn’t help but think that we were going off on a tangent when all the interesting stuff was back over there. However, I did enjoy the writing and it still held my attention. There’s a reveal at the end that I didn’t see coming, either, and thought it was really well done.
I found this book quite intriguing. It’s a snapshot that illustrates who the characters are, backed up with flashbacks that show what went into making them who they are. The book leans more towards Adrian’s story, leaving a lot of Ezra’s to be deduced from bits of information. While I would have liked to have more of his past a little more spelled out, I guess the idea is that it isn’t meant to be that clear. It leaves him as a little bit of a mystery.
I really liked both Ezra and Adrian. They are two young men, both struggling with issues that have formed them. You can’t help but think that maybe that’ll be easier for them to do together, by the support and understanding they each give to the other. While their interactions together weren’t many, they were very sweet and I really loved them. I also loved Adrian’s letter to himself at the end at it also works really well as a kind of epilogue.
Read the full review at Live Your Life, Buy The Book
The middle did drag a bit for me with the multiple of POVs from the residents of Paradise at Main and Elm. There are a lot of seemingly random POVs from minor characters that do eventually tie into the main plot following Adrian. While they may go towards building the character of Margaret, in particular, and even Adrian to a lesser degree, it did feel like they were bogging down the story. I couldn’t help but think that we were going off on a tangent when all the interesting stuff was back over there. However, I did enjoy the writing and it still held my attention. There’s a reveal at the end that I didn’t see coming, either, and thought it was really well done.
I found this book quite intriguing. It’s a snapshot that illustrates who the characters are, backed up with flashbacks that show what went into making them who they are. The book leans more towards Adrian’s story, leaving a lot of Ezra’s to be deduced from bits of information. While I would have liked to have more of his past a little more spelled out, I guess the idea is that it isn’t meant to be that clear. It leaves him as a little bit of a mystery.
I really liked both Ezra and Adrian. They are two young men, both struggling with issues that have formed them. You can’t help but think that maybe that’ll be easier for them to do together, by the support and understanding they each give to the other. While their interactions together weren’t many, they were very sweet and I really loved them. I also loved Adrian’s letter to himself at the end at it also works really well as a kind of epilogue.
Read the full review at Live Your Life, Buy The Book
November 6, 2013
Simply STUNNING. I'll be able to write a more coherent review once I decompress. This was just phenomenal.
Read
January 20, 2014I know this book is beautiful. I can sense it. Unfortunately I'm unable to finish reading it - stopping at 52%. My linear brain cannot track the switch ups. This is a failing in me, not the story.
flounced
April 28, 2014Very good writing, but I feel entirely lost as to what's going on plotwise.
DNF.
DNF.
February 22, 2014
This was a strange read for me. The story was excellent, the characters compelling. Where I ran into trouble was all the italics. Not the font, the part of the story being told in italics. Sometimes it was a dream. Occasionally it was a story or poem that one of the characters had written. Sometimes a memory. A few times it was happening in real time but the character wasn’t in his right state of mind. The italics explained a lot about the young men I was getting to know and care about. They were easily a third of the book. But I had a hard time determining into which category each particular set of italics fell. It would take a page or two after returning to the regular font for me to figure out what I had just read in pages and pages of italics. Did I mention that the story was excellent?
The blurb for Paradise at Main and Elm gives away very little of the plot. This means that I will be unable to summarize the story without spoiling it and I am not willing to spoil it. Ezra (and let’s hear it for the use of an original, old-fashioned character name!) and Adrian both came from nightmarish upbringings. They each suffered their own kind of hell and are still in the process of working through it when we meet them. In fact, parts of their hell are still alive and well.
Ezra and Adrian meet in a college writing class. They have both chosen the written word as a way to process their baggage. Baggage seems like such an incompetent word for what these two young men were hauling around. They each had enough steamer trunks to fill a railroad car. While they both write, Ezra writes poetry while Adrian writes short stories. Their writing helps exorcize their demons and it also brings them tentatively together as they write pieces for and about each other.
Their “relationship” has barely begun when Adrian has to leave school unexpectedly to go home. He doesn’t think he will be gone long and he isn’t. Ezra feels every minute of Adrian’s absence as though it were a week. While Adrian feels the horror that is his life can’t get any worse, he is proven wrong while visiting home. He makes a hasty return to school and to Ezra.
The comfort these young men are able to provide for each other and the safety they find together just mad me smile. The way Mr. Bressennel wrote them, it was apparent that they were made for each other. Whether he wrote them that way or muse made him do it, it was a beautiful pairing. It was worth the extra time to read and figure out the italics because they gave vast insight into Ezra and Adrian and why they are who they are. It will take patience, but I highly recommend this book.
The blurb for Paradise at Main and Elm gives away very little of the plot. This means that I will be unable to summarize the story without spoiling it and I am not willing to spoil it. Ezra (and let’s hear it for the use of an original, old-fashioned character name!) and Adrian both came from nightmarish upbringings. They each suffered their own kind of hell and are still in the process of working through it when we meet them. In fact, parts of their hell are still alive and well.
Ezra and Adrian meet in a college writing class. They have both chosen the written word as a way to process their baggage. Baggage seems like such an incompetent word for what these two young men were hauling around. They each had enough steamer trunks to fill a railroad car. While they both write, Ezra writes poetry while Adrian writes short stories. Their writing helps exorcize their demons and it also brings them tentatively together as they write pieces for and about each other.
Their “relationship” has barely begun when Adrian has to leave school unexpectedly to go home. He doesn’t think he will be gone long and he isn’t. Ezra feels every minute of Adrian’s absence as though it were a week. While Adrian feels the horror that is his life can’t get any worse, he is proven wrong while visiting home. He makes a hasty return to school and to Ezra.
The comfort these young men are able to provide for each other and the safety they find together just mad me smile. The way Mr. Bressennel wrote them, it was apparent that they were made for each other. Whether he wrote them that way or muse made him do it, it was a beautiful pairing. It was worth the extra time to read and figure out the italics because they gave vast insight into Ezra and Adrian and why they are who they are. It will take patience, but I highly recommend this book.
June 29, 2016
Life is full of interesting surprises and learning how to be a respectful human being in unfamiliar territory on this planet is one of life's finest gifts if you are bold enough to handle the journey. Mr. Brennessel offers a bridge to 'breeders' (new word check-off, circa 1999) on this journey in this gentle romance by giving the reader a peek into how people in 'unconventional' relationships get together, despite all of society's whispers, tsk tsks, and disapproving head shakes. Come to find out, we all get together the same way, for similar reasons. General physical attraction, curiosity in one another's strengths and weakness and the willingness to love each other through our differences.
November 24, 2013
The comfort these young men are able to provide for each other and the safety they find together just made me smile. The way Mr. Bressennel wrote them, it was apparent that they were made for each other. Whether he wrote them that way or muse made him do it, it was a beautiful pairing.
See the entire review at The Novel Approach: http://thenovelapproachreviews.com/20...
See the entire review at The Novel Approach: http://thenovelapproachreviews.com/20...
Read
November 22, 2015DNF. Just could not get into this one. I tried. I do not like to not finish a book. It disturbs me. I had to put it down. I understood their pain, but it was a rambling fractured nothing since I never felt the characters. They were hidden, even their struggle was hidden. This method of story telling can be effective and has been done better (i.e. by Eric Arvin). Maybe I will try again next year, but not sure.
December 6, 2015
2014 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews