Listening To Dust Brandon Shire 9781470181291 Books
Download As PDF : Listening To Dust Brandon Shire 9781470181291 Books
Murder touched Stephen Dobbins when he was a young boy and left him living in a void of aching loneliness. A chance meeting with a young American chased away the fear that he would always be alone and brought him the prospect of a new existence. Dustin Earl joined the military and escaped his small town Southern upbringing with the hope that he could give his mentally challenged brother a better life. But Dustin had never known real love, an honest hug, or a simple kiss. He considered his sexuality a weakness; a threat that had been used against those he cared about. For eight months their relationship blossomed until Dustin suddenly returned home. He cherished Stephen, but felt his responsibilities to his brother outweighed his own chance at happiness. Shattered, unable to function and unwilling to accept Dustin’s departure, Stephen flew three thousand miles to get Dustin back and rekindle what they had. But what he would learn when he got there… he could never have imagined.
Listening To Dust Brandon Shire 9781470181291 Books
~ ~ … all men had two faces; one you could see with your heart, the other you felt with your soul, and both would be captured within the contours of his hand. ~ ~This story starts out in emotional overdrive. I felt like I was barely holding on, constantly switching my grip in attempts to keep up. Having read a number of Brandon Shire’s books, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Or rather, I should have been much better prepared. Though, I’m not sure that would have been possible. He splashes and methodically paints and sneakily drops emotion all over his pages.
This is told in relatively chronological order regarding the events, but flashbacks are utilized. After each one, I was taken right back to the present, the moment that was temporarily abandoned for the memory. That’s what this feels like, experiencing someone else’s memories.
There’s no way around it, Dustin and his brother Robbie came from a horribly messed up family. Unforgiving, uncaring, and therefore physically and emotionally hurtful in unrelenting waves, it left destruction in its wake. Life-changing and bent on suffocation of their hearts.
Shire has a way of expressing love, the idea of love, the it-likes-to-pop-up-in-unexpected-places nature of love, and then he works it between people who don’t always know how to handle it.
~ ~ Their single night together had been beneath the surface of life, an invisible thing that Stephen couldn’t put his finger on… ~ ~
… “beneath the surface of life…”
I almost don’t know how to process that, except that it’s true. Love can be impossible to define and express in some of the usual ways. That’s love and this is beautiful, naked writing. When a monkey wrench or ten then get tossed into the mix, love is even more complicated, messy and challenging.
~ ~ ”… all our romances seem to come from the dirt we bury ourselves in rather than the glitter we throw up for the show.” ~ ~
Unplanned, unexpected, deeper than we could even anticipate or envision. Shire is so good at examining and contemplating love. Asking the questions about what it does to us, what we do to ourselves when we’re in its grip, how it seems unwilling to give up on us no matter the situation and how desperate we may be to give up on it.
I feel both fragile and full. How is that possible? That’s what it is so it must be possible. It’s just so rare for words on a page to both portray and elicit such unmistakable emotions that feel inextricably linked.
~ ~ Like the two of us, one is empty without the other. ~ ~
Stephen’s Gran, Colette, is strong, perceptive, protective and direct. Dustin’s adoptive Gran, Miss Emily, is Colette’s mirror. These two comfort and yet highlight the heartbreak of their grandchildren.
This is a love story. It’s the part of a love story that doesn’t often get told, and certainly not like this, not so well.
~ ~ When you pulled me back and put our foreheads together I saw you naked, without all those fears, saw your heart swell with the reflection you witnessed in my eyes; and seeing that in your face made me understand your pain had been necessary, that it had been both river and raft. ~ ~
Every book of Brandon Shire’s that I’ve read has been fantastic and emotional and unrelenting. This is no exception. I love it. That’s all there is to it. He is one of the few writers by whom I cannot wait to yet again have my heart pummeled. His words zero in like beating heart seeking missiles and I’ve been slain.
This review originally appeared on Prism Book Alliance
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Tags : Listening To Dust [Brandon Shire] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Murder touched Stephen Dobbins when he was a young boy and left him living in a void of aching loneliness. A chance meeting with a young American chased away the fear that he would always be alone and brought him the prospect of a new existence. Dustin Earl joined the military and escaped his small town Southern upbringing with the hope that he could give his mentally challenged brother a better life. But Dustin had never known real love,Brandon Shire,Listening To Dust,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1470181290,FICTION LGBT Gay,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Gay,Gay,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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Listening To Dust Brandon Shire 9781470181291 Books Reviews
"nothing is perfect, not even love" --Brandon Shire
In "Listening to Dust" Brandon Shire's first work since his stunning debut with The Value Of Rain,the author once again drives with poetic abandon through the landscape of the heart, ruthlessly plowing through every intersection of love and pain in this engaging and haunting work.
In London, Stephen Dobbins, whose parents were murdered for mysterious political reasons, meets Dustin Earl, a drunk American soldier with a troubled past and an uncertain future. Dustin's tour of duty has just finished and Stephen takes him home. Their night together engages Stephen's emotions but Dustin explodes with anger the next morning and disappears. He returns eventually and begins a tenuous relationship with Stephen that grows deeply over the course of eight months. From the outset Dustin makes it clear that he will, for family reasons, return to his home and eventually does leaving Stephen bereft and lonely. Stephen hides out in France for a year before finally deciding to go to America to bring Dustin back. He is unprepared for what he finds in America where an awful irony accentuates the paths that love and pain travel together, where love can not save anyone from death, but death cannot destroy love.
"Listening to Dust" is well worth reading many times. There are no wasted words, no comforting platitudes, no perfect romances just life told by a master story teller with a razored and haunting insight into heart and soul.
My teenage years were spent reading poetry. Pablo Neruda is one of my all-time favorites, Robert Frost a close second. Ezra Pound an outlet for my rebellion and angst. Just like the pink glasses and idealism of that age fall off with time and experience, so did my taste for reading poetry.
Until I started reading this author's work.
"...your pain had been necessary, that it had been both river and raft. And in that I witnessed your understanding and your love for this inept ferryman."
The characters, the setting, the pacing and writing style, they all feel like a poignant, heart-wrenching romantic movie that would be a block buster in the box office. So many re-makes, so many bad original movies being made, while this story remains in obscurity. It's not fair.
This is not a romance, there is no HEA. Rather, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience being revisited, absorbed, accepted by the MC, with us readers sitting at the next table, listening in. If you are willing to face melancholy and memories, read it. You won't regret it.
This is the first book I've read by Author Brandon Shire. He has a strong but compassionate style that swept me right into the depth of his story. Stephen Dobbins suffered the loss of his parents at age 12. They had been murdered, but as an adult could get no information as to why from the English Prime Minister. He is raised by his French grandmother, Colette, who tries very hard to get him past the dreadful loss of his parents. Soon he returns to England where he meets and falls in love with Dustin Earl, a U.S. southern raised boy in the U.S. Army. They enjoy five months together sharing great emotions, but both have many problems to overcome. Almost without warning, Dustin, released from the Army, returns to his small, southern town in Georgia. Stephen soon returns to Aix, France where his grandmother recognizes the pain his heart is feeling at the loss of Dustin. Through his grandmother's sage, loving advice, she encourages Stephen to go to Dustin's hometown to find the answer his heart is demanding. What Stephen learns when he arrives in Georgia is unbelievably shocking and heart-wrenching. This is a sad but moving story. The author has a true knowledge of the joy and pain of deep love. This is a very compelling story which I strongly recommend.
I will be reading more great stories from this author myself.
~ ~ … all men had two faces; one you could see with your heart, the other you felt with your soul, and both would be captured within the contours of his hand. ~ ~
This story starts out in emotional overdrive. I felt like I was barely holding on, constantly switching my grip in attempts to keep up. Having read a number of Brandon Shire’s books, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Or rather, I should have been much better prepared. Though, I’m not sure that would have been possible. He splashes and methodically paints and sneakily drops emotion all over his pages.
This is told in relatively chronological order regarding the events, but flashbacks are utilized. After each one, I was taken right back to the present, the moment that was temporarily abandoned for the memory. That’s what this feels like, experiencing someone else’s memories.
There’s no way around it, Dustin and his brother Robbie came from a horribly messed up family. Unforgiving, uncaring, and therefore physically and emotionally hurtful in unrelenting waves, it left destruction in its wake. Life-changing and bent on suffocation of their hearts.
Shire has a way of expressing love, the idea of love, the it-likes-to-pop-up-in-unexpected-places nature of love, and then he works it between people who don’t always know how to handle it.
~ ~ Their single night together had been beneath the surface of life, an invisible thing that Stephen couldn’t put his finger on… ~ ~
… “beneath the surface of life…”
I almost don’t know how to process that, except that it’s true. Love can be impossible to define and express in some of the usual ways. That’s love and this is beautiful, naked writing. When a monkey wrench or ten then get tossed into the mix, love is even more complicated, messy and challenging.
~ ~ ”… all our romances seem to come from the dirt we bury ourselves in rather than the glitter we throw up for the show.” ~ ~
Unplanned, unexpected, deeper than we could even anticipate or envision. Shire is so good at examining and contemplating love. Asking the questions about what it does to us, what we do to ourselves when we’re in its grip, how it seems unwilling to give up on us no matter the situation and how desperate we may be to give up on it.
I feel both fragile and full. How is that possible? That’s what it is so it must be possible. It’s just so rare for words on a page to both portray and elicit such unmistakable emotions that feel inextricably linked.
~ ~ Like the two of us, one is empty without the other. ~ ~
Stephen’s Gran, Colette, is strong, perceptive, protective and direct. Dustin’s adoptive Gran, Miss Emily, is Colette’s mirror. These two comfort and yet highlight the heartbreak of their grandchildren.
This is a love story. It’s the part of a love story that doesn’t often get told, and certainly not like this, not so well.
~ ~ When you pulled me back and put our foreheads together I saw you naked, without all those fears, saw your heart swell with the reflection you witnessed in my eyes; and seeing that in your face made me understand your pain had been necessary, that it had been both river and raft. ~ ~
Every book of Brandon Shire’s that I’ve read has been fantastic and emotional and unrelenting. This is no exception. I love it. That’s all there is to it. He is one of the few writers by whom I cannot wait to yet again have my heart pummeled. His words zero in like beating heart seeking missiles and I’ve been slain.
This review originally appeared on Prism Book Alliance
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