rainbow_reviewss's review
3.0
This is a collection of stories that has all male protagonists, most of them are Jewish but the sexual orientation is different according to the story. I was very excited to read this literary fiction because of the LGBTQ theme as many of those men were longing for other men during their travel. The interesting thing about the stories is that each one explores a different place in the world through the eyes of the protagonists. As I recall most of these men are Americans. Some of these travel stories have magic realism while others are with subtle humor. All of them have this feel of surrealism to them. You will read lots of variety here like a gay Holocaust ghost in Prague, a closeted Catholic school administrator in Dublin, a shapeshifter in Mexico or a serial killer in a bathhouse in Munich, and many more.
I feel despite the multiple protagonists in the stories, the real hero of the whole collection is the mysterious atmosphere that was created by the author's writing whether the story had its supernatural element or not. I think Daniel M. Jaffe has done a big deal of research when he wrote this book because there are stories that talks a lot about the history of some places, those were quite fascinating. I love literary fiction in general when I can connect with a story and for that to happen I feel the story needs to be longer in length and detailed to make me feel as if I am living with the characters in their adventures. Unfortunately, I can't say that I connected to all the stories in this collection. I liked some of them more than the others. I was able to relate to some of the men there or their actions while some others I did not care much about. I still feel you should read the book for two main reasons, first the amount of hard work the author has put in here and second because there is a big chance you might enjoy a few of these travel tales if not all.
Many thanks to Gay Book Promotions for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.
The Review
I feel despite the multiple protagonists in the stories, the real hero of the whole collection is the mysterious atmosphere that was created by the author's writing whether the story had its supernatural element or not. I think Daniel M. Jaffe has done a big deal of research when he wrote this book because there are stories that talks a lot about the history of some places, those were quite fascinating. I love literary fiction in general when I can connect with a story and for that to happen I feel the story needs to be longer in length and detailed to make me feel as if I am living with the characters in their adventures. Unfortunately, I can't say that I connected to all the stories in this collection. I liked some of them more than the others. I was able to relate to some of the men there or their actions while some others I did not care much about. I still feel you should read the book for two main reasons, first the amount of hard work the author has put in here and second because there is a big chance you might enjoy a few of these travel tales if not all.
Many thanks to Gay Book Promotions for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.
The Review
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