Love is a many splendered thing...

AUTHOR: Cart, Michael
TITLE: How Beautiful the Ordinary

Each story focuses on a different aspect of identity, whether it be gender or sexual. Cart managed to edit a cohesive collection of short stories that is incredibly strong. Readers will be pleasantly that some of their favorite authors are attempting new techniques within the collection, most notably David Leviathan’s non-traditional short story in which he speaks directly to the audience and asks them the difficult questions. Many of the protagonists are secure in their sexuality from the stories inception, however not all of these characters are teens. In fact, many of the protagonists in this novel are young adults and in one case is over forty. In addition, the novels not only tend to range in age but in the graphic nature as well. This novel may find a difficult niche market, however fans of any of these authors would be remiss if they were to pass up this collection.