Couplings: A book of stories

**From a review by "Stephen" on Goodreads:**

This is a single author collection of eleven short stories detailing the various permutations of relationships experienced by gay men.

"The Prisoner of Love" opens the collection with a well to do man inviting his poor but passionate activist friend down to his Puerto Rico retreat for a vacation. After arranging with one of the locals for his guest to have a "good vacation" our host is stuck footing the bill rather than disillusioning his idealistic guest.

In "Colors" we have an anti- "Heart of Darkness" story when a black Puerto Rican recounts his trip into deepest darkest Manhattan and the cruelty he finds there.

In "Death in San Juan" the author attempts a twist on the Death in Venice story but it's not very parallel. A young Mid-western bred doctor, living alone in New York gets entangled with a Puerto Rican family and learns to live life on a different level until a life threatening event scares him and he retreats back into his more normal, less fulfilling, but ultimately safer existence.

In "The Household God" we have a reprise of the "Piña Colada" song involving a gay couple whose relationship has grown stale.

In "Koan" we meet a trophy boy who, while exploring Zen meditation, discovers that "the opposite of everything" is also true and that some qualities of his sugar dad that he previously found enraging are actually endearing.

Finally, in "The Boy Who Would Be Real" we see the long and painful coming-out of a young man who has been suppressing his true self in hopes of becoming the "Real Boy" that his parents always wanted.

The stories are well-written and skilfully observed and men of a certain age will find much to identify with but as with most short story collections, this reader was ultimately unsatisfied as each character was abandoned following their story and no full length sense of fulfillment was reached.

But then I've always been a sucker for the mega saga. These stories are well told. You should read this collection if you enjoy shorter length tales. Judge for yourself.