Peter Orner’s Love and Shame and Love is one of the prettiest books you’ll find at the bookstore, and reading it is pure pleasure not only because of the way it feels and looks (it’s the best trim for a book I’ve ever seen!) but because of the prose. The prose feels weightless and effortless and flowing, but it’s meticulous, crafted, and careful.
The first chapter is laugh out loud funny, and when I went to see Peter read it, I did laugh out loud. The humor of the first chapter is almost like a vein throughout the rest of the novel, we see it sometimes, but more rarely. There’s more skin in the the rest of the book. The rest of the book oscillates between characters, between feelings, and between eras. It’s not a dizzying oscillation, but a pleasant one. The plot stays oriented, we always know which character’s at bat.
The characters are just as careful and meticulous as Orner’s prose, even though many endure crises and embarassments. They do stuff they’re less than proud of, but we follow them, and we follow Orner, and we want to know more. We want to see more perspectives, more eras, and more of the family Love and Shame and Love chronicles, the Poppers. I got the impression that these people were in control of themselves even when they were flying of the handle; bereft at the loss of a lover, cheating on spouses, punching them. Their trials seem like test questions they’re answering wrong on purpose, with Orner teaching them every trick and joke they know.
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