The Star-Democrat from Easton, Maryland • Page 9

The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy. Turtle Point Press, 155 $14.95. Any attempt to describe or define love is a formidable task. Ranging as it does from the bond between mother and infant through the puppy love stage to geriatric glue that makes old couples almost meld their identities, hard to fit love into an all-purpose box. Passion and pain are part of the same package.

No wonder Simon Van Booy includes the word secret in this book title. Each of his fictional stories is unique, just as it is in reality, and many mock the simplistic formula, meets And if Van characters in these short stories endure more pain than pleasure, the reader is not tempted to say, want to hear about Indeed, the uncanny ability to draw us into sharing the secret marks a writer of extraordinary talent. In an early entry in his litany of love lost and found, They Hide is a a boy is clinging to memories of his recently dead mother in the silence he shares with his numbed-with-grief father. Their apartment is a soundless tomb; for a lonely child, had become quiet and drawn out like a wet Sunday The boy haunts a bench in Central Park where he and his dying mother sat on afternoons when she was still able to walk. A stranger joins him on the bench a man who may or may not be looking for solace for grief over his own lost child and the boy learns to reach out to his own sorrow.

That melancholy tone sets the theme for many of these vignettes, all written with such insight they connect with universal regret and memory. The little slices of life resonate with a vivid sense of place, particularly those set in Wales. In the little mining towns, rain blackens stone cottages where, as in Greek myths, and Sleep are and rest before a smoldering fire is a modest comfort. An injured miner works long hours without gloves is so cold in the warehouse that we wear our breath like I cannot recall a writer who so pungently evokes the quiet desperation of bereavement. Von Booy puts it this way: think living with the absence of someone we love is like living in front of a mountain from which a person a speck in the distance, on some distant ridge is perpetually That passage moved me to tears for its accuracy.

As the book title makes clear, these are mostly secret lives, almost too deep to share, but they solo performances. Other people, some of them charming and humorous, have walk-on roles. In Bloom in the object of a lonely longing is a mannequin in a shop window, but he warms to life and hope by the time he realizes that not real. winsome and touching, but it opens him to the possibility of connection. Life always have a happy ending, in spite of the occasional epiphany of spirit, but the man in this story is able to respond to a woman who crosses his path and strikes a spark of humanity, however brief.

In for example, a wife has crippled legs. otherwise a perfect, loving mate. His secret wish is to be the father of a son, and when a final medical report puts the end to any hope that she will ever be able to have whole limbs again, he realizes that he care. His life is so rich with her, just as she is, that he is suffused with gratitude and happiness. a gentle mist hovering over all these stories of love and longing, like dreams we only half remember as we struggle out of sleep, vaguely disturbed, but with a sigh of acceptance.

This collection of short stories hops all over the map, reflecting the peripatetic itinerary of its author. Van Booy grew up in Wales and was a keen rugby player who was recruited to play football for Campbellsville University in Kentucky. He eventually returned to England, where he graduated from Dartington College of Arts. Now a New Yorker, he teaches at the School of Visual Arts and in the Bard College Clemente Course. As a freelance journalist, he writes for several New York newspapers and won a first- place award for in-depth reporting from the New York Press Association.

Those credentials hardly hint at Van mastery of language and the short story form. This is his first book. We hope he continues to mine his imagination and exercise his awesome gift to bring us more. WEEKEND FRIDAY, MARCH 16,2007 9 THE STAR DEMOCRAT EASTON The Talbot County Arts Council has issued a reminder to local arts organizations about the deadline for applications for community arts development grants for activities that will occur between July 2007 and June 2008. The cutoff date for grant applications is March 31, and those selected will be notified by April 30.

Arts Council funding must be matched on at least a dollar- for-dollar basis in cash by the requesting organization. This requirement may be waived in particular cases, such as arts programs intended specifically for poor or otherwise under- served audiences. Applicants must be either incorporated as nonprofits in the State of Maryland with IRS tax-exempt status, or government-related such as parks and recreation departments. Application packets have been sent to organizations that received grants during the past two years. Packets are also available for downloading from the Arts website: www.talbotarts.org.

For further information or hardcopy application forms, contact the Talbot County Arts Council by phone 410-745-0222 or e-mail org. Apply for Arts Council grants by March 31 Love wrapped in mist and melancholia NATURENOTES ANNESTINSON BOOK REVIEW Simon Van prose moved our critic, at one point, to tears. am the law, and the law is the handmaiden of justice. Get a is the handmaiden of Paul Newman as Judge Roy Bean in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.