Reviewed by Taylor

TITLE: A Life Interrupted

AUTHOR: Lynley Wayne

PUBLISHER: MLR Press

LENGTH: 96 pages

BLURB:

Dan and Travis met in college, the unlikeliest of pairs, and then became friends and lovers. For the past twenty-two years Dan’s lived his own version of happily-ever-after, with Travis by his side. Then tragedy strikes and life as they know it ceases to exist. Will they be strong enough to find their way back from a life interrupted?

While Travis fights for his life, Dan can’t help but relive all those little moments that made up their life. All those things that he took for granted at the time. Those very same events may end up being all he has left of the man who is his entire world.

REVIEW:

This is a new author for me, and I can’t wait to read more!  I loved everything about this novella and it was so incredible wonderful to read about over 40 characters in an established relationship with normal lives told simply and beautifully.

Dan and Travis met twenty-two years ago at a sports bar and the two, while opposites, feel an instant connection.  What I loved about their initial outings is that both felt an attraction, but neither knew what to name it, if you will, or whether to act on it.  So things started out slowly.  The men developed a genuine friendship before they consummated their attraction.  Even though the men have been husbands for many years, the story starts out present day while Travis is in the hospital and Dan waits for news on his husband’s health status.  The flashbacks are fairly short and always serve a purpose.  Little perfect segments in their lives, almost like reading a written scrapbook.  The reader is along for all the important parts: their first kiss, their first apartment, the move in to their own home, and eventually their kids.  It could have been maudlin and cheesy, but it was lovely and sweet.

What broke my heart is the way the author wrote Dan’s moments reminiscing on his husband and their lives together, what their present situation was, and the fear and anger he felt, and the hope he desperately needed.  I thought how he was, in many ways, avoiding his kids because he didn’t have Travis to lean on was also realistic and tore my heart out at the descriptions of how the kids viewed their daddy.

The love between these two characters felt palpable and that can be a very hard thing to write from one character’s POV and with the other character not really ‘there’.  But I felt it.  From beginning till the end.  And when Dan walked in to Travis’ shop once home, I about started bawling with him.

There will be a continuance of Dan and Travis’ story and I very much look forward to it, and despite how the novella ends, I’m hopeful for the next step in their journey.

Loved!

RATING:

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