How It Was for Me: Stories

How It Was for Me: Stories

Picador, 224 pp., $23

Many of the characters in Andrew Sean Greer's collection How It Was for Me are haunted by things from the past -- missing parents, lost chances, faded beauty, and love that slipped away. In finely wrought prose, the narrators pore over memories, examining with crystal-like clarity the moments when their decisions or actions set their lives on the courses that followed.

Actually, some of the stories are too mired in remembrance for their own good. Reading such stories recalls the effect of looking at still life paintings -- they're pretty and pleasant to examine, skillfully drawn, but in the end a bit stagnant. Thankfully, though, Greer usually hits his mark, especially in a batch of outstanding stories that dwell on the lives of gay men in America. Greer's work is similar to that of Peter Cameron and David Leavitt, gay writers whose stories focus on the joys and hardships of romantic love, often involving affluent characters. And like these writers, Greer doesn't ignore the role that heterosexuals play in these lives.

Two of the stronger pieces, oddly enough, both deal with the bonds that form between a gay man and a woman. "Blame It on My Youth" is about the sexual relationship Margaret embarked on with her gay friend Pete: "It was not a romance, or an affair. It was a time not to think of such things. It was the mindless play of children in the sand; it was the gratitude of sleep." It's like Will and Grace, with loving yet perfunctory sex involved. When Pete finds love with a man, Margaret must swallow her broken heart and move on: "Now she had to grow old. It seemed so far away."

Meanwhile, "Come Live With Me and Be My Love" -- arguably the best of the collection -- opens in the 1950s and follows for over 20 years the relationship between Paul and Britta, a gay man and a lesbian who marry out of convenience, as "beards" for their families and the rest of the disapproving world. The story is both a reminder of those less-accepting times and a rueful tale of how romantic love can still thrive without sexual desire.

On a different track, "The Future of the Flynns," an omniscient portrayal of a family dining out at an Italian restaurant, is also a standout story; in just a few pages, Greer creates each fleshy family member, including six-year-old Danny, who astounds his family by ordering "calimari cooked in its own ink."

How It Was for Me isn't a perfect collection, but even the dull and lumbering stories are saved by Greer's gift for nuanced language. And the best stories here are strong indicators that Greer is a writer worth watching.