Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Love, it is the greatest thing, the poets and the pop stars agree on that at least, even if their view points on the rest of life and existence differ wildly. Love is like a beast, it is the slow caress by Time. It can hurt, confuse and exhilarate and almost never in equal terms, never as if the times or the beat of the heart were in synch; but then Seasons of Love rarely do come together with the idea of the ever-lasting, it is only in the anthology that we see the potential of the relationship, no matter the form, no matter the aspiration, all that matters is love.
The different styles and approaches of the storyteller are always significant, and yet it is the theme of the anthology that we perhaps see a greater clarity of expression; how one person feels their heart explode with passion is another’s long day in the park holding hands. Both scenarios are meaningful, both are filled with the message of wanting to hold someone close by and feel the reassurance that they are loved and that they are special to someone.
To adapt your own reading skill to an anthology is a great art, no sooner do you find yourself falling at the feet of a writer such as A.M. Leibowitz and praising them for their insight and courage of tackling with great sensitivity the complete range of the LGBTQI spectrum and even bringing the past spectre of AIDS and religion to the front of the reader’s mind, in the fantastic Year of the Guilty Soul, but then finding one of the most charming short stories concerned with love that you could possibly read in Debbie McGowan’s The Great Village Bun Fight, with the sense of occasion running riot across every beautiful paragraph.
To switch your attention rapidly between styles is a hard task, like skimming through various magazines and settling on but one that carries you into your own realm of delight; yet Beaten Track Publishing’s Anthology of stories that have come together in Seasons of Love to celebrate the LGBTQI life is one that makes the apparent task a pure joy to behold; regardless of whether you are involved in the scene, or just an ally wishing to understand, to embrace the distinction between love and hate. For the former is always welcome and the latter, well that is just remarkably silly when it comes down to it.
With stories from Deven Balsam, Neptune Flowers, Ofelia Grand, Paul Iasvoli, Dawn Sister, a rather intriguing and strikingly observed addition to the Missing Beat series by Bob Stone, Alexis Woods, A. Zukowski and the aforementioned A.M. Leibowitz and Debbie McGowan, Seasons of Love is a riveting read, a day of passion undertaken in what could a cold hard time for anyone coming to terms with their own feelings and desires.
A beautifully bound collection of stories, all given credence, all shaped by the writer’s own take, on what makes love come into our lives.
Ian D. Hall