A Few Thousand Words about Love

This excellent anthology compiled by Pearlman (A Place Called Home) offers 17 short memoirs by established and emerging writers, including a piece by the editor, that deal with love in all it's complexities. The selections are a pleasure to read, both for the outstanding quality of the writing as well as for the uniqueness of each experience. Several authors reminisce about loving their partners. Ron Carlson's ""Longevity"" addresses his 28-year marriage; Larry O'Connor's ""My Belt"" is a story of a romantic fling with his wife in Paris. In ""First Love,"" what she calls a work of ""fiction-memoir,"" Joyce Carol Oates remembers the emotional chaos she went through when, as a college student, she fell in love with an African American male classmate. Peter Cameron's ""Excerpts From Swan Lake"" describes the time he and his lover, Neal, stayed at his grandmother's home, although he was never able to bring himself to tell her that he is gay. Carolyn See's ""Beulah Land,"" a poignant tale of her childhood anguish when her father moved away, and Katherine Weber's arresting memoir of her grandmother's decade-long affair with George Gershwin, are both memorable.(Feb.)