If You Were With Me, Everything Would Be All Right

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Summary: Read this book!
Review: Ken Harvey's book, IF YOU WERE WITH ME, EVERYTHING WOULD BE ALL RIGHT, is not to be missed. Each story is an entity onto itself. I had to pause between each to digest the layers and the characters. They are haunting. Ken is brilliant in his portrayal of what makes us human. He captures the essence of childhood, love and pain. The stories work together beautifully. Where is this man's novel?? Do not hesitate--go buy this book!

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Summary: Ordinary People¿s Extraordinary Lives
Review: Ken Harvey's stories have appeared in numerous literary journals. If You Were With Me Everything Would Be All Right, his first book, collects a baker's dozen. Every story is a polished gem sparkling with insight into ordinary people's extraordinary lives. With quiet dignity lonely characters struggle with the human condition in a world where comic relief is dark, bizarre, and inscrutable.

Harvey, winner of this year's Violet Quill Award, read "Mr. Bubble, I Love You" at the award ceremony. In it, twelve year-old Ho focuses his nascent homosexuality upon a gentle, meticulous older man he nicknames Mr. Bubble, who "always smiled and smelled of soap" at his session with Ho's therapist mother. But Mr. Bubble's attentions are only polite indulgences of a child, Ho learns sadly, when he spies Mr. Bubble at lunch doting on his girlfriend.

Most of the stories are set in Lynn, Massachusetts, and each main character appears to fit into family and community. Privately, though, all feel abandoned--disconnected from the very relationships in which they yearn for comfort. In the title story, pragmatic Owen and romantic Arthur are at odds in their long-term relationship, each awkwardly trying to reach the other but floundering, "where nothing seems young, not you, not love, not even death." Theo ("33 1/3"), whose wacky family celebrates RPM anniversaries, will soon be 33 1/3-and feels unmoored by his lover's indifference. Uncle Vincent ("Mariposa") envies young Joey, who easily chooses gender reassignment while Vincent, who came out at 40, feels "he was given a credit card without a spending limit, but the only store he could shop in had just had major liquidation sales" and he had to settle for what was left. Kevin ("Tipping Cows") wants to love his deviant father who seemed "born without a gene that gave you the ability to love." And in "The Near Occasion" Andrew, himself gay, tries unsuccessfully upon his mother's death to re-connect with the father who abandoned them for another man, and thinks, "I began the day burying one parent and am ending it burying another."

Ken Harvey wastes no words, and with leavening humor, fluent dialog, brilliant figurative language, believably bizarre situations, and living characters makes his stories swell the heart long after their reading. His is the art of the short story at its very best.

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Summary: yet another review about why EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS
Review: the book explores homosexuality, gender, and transgender themes (among others).
for those of us whose lives already include queer issues, it is refreshing to look beyond their socio-political context, and just enjoy a good book.
those who are new to queer culture are exposed to its humanity with an accesable writing style.

Rating:
Summary: Humor with a bit of darkness - a great read!
Review: This book of stories walks that incredibly fine line between laughing and crying. Knowing you shouldn't laugh at others' misfortune, you are nonetheless unable to hold back. Mr. Harvey has found a way to see the humor in the everyday lives of the displaced; each new tale brings further understanding. By all means, find a warm corner of the porch and settle in for a wonderful read.

Rating:
Summary: Humor with a bit of darkness - a great read!
Review: This book of stories walks that incredibly fine line between laughing and crying. Knowing you shouldn't laugh at others' misfortune, you are nonetheless unable to hold back. Mr. Harvey has found a way to see the humor in the everyday lives of the displaced; each new tale brings further understanding. By all means, find a warm corner of the porch and settle in for a wonderful read.