Everything to Do with You: Stories — Sean Taylor

Originally Published in 2010- The debut out of print collection of quick fiction by Sean Taylor, the author of 2015's Your Smallest Bones. "Everything To Do With You includes ten memorable short stories. What Mr. Taylor can accomplish in this highly compressed form is astonishing. In “Why Won't You Lie” he delineates the birth and growth of a loving relationship as a young man arrives home soaked from a rainstorm and reflects on his need for warmth as he waits for his lover. The tables are turned when she arrives: “She floods the door, soaked head to toe, worse than I ever was, and stares down at me.” Together they recall their meeting when he had rescued her as she “held [herself] hostage on a rowboat in the middle of Stow Lake” after her father's passing. In a few deft strokes, Taylor explores grief and neediness and the ease with which youth can fall in love. In a moment of intimacy the girl proclaims the lovely and haunting remark: “What a wonderful puddle we always find ourselves in.” Sweet and sentimental, but not cloying. “His Stop” describes an encounter with a wino on the N Judah Muni line, carefully characterized, a short San Francisco vignette brimming with detail and authenticity. In “Story”, a deeply felt personification of his muse, he describes her as “the violent quiet you hear when you turn the pages of every book.” Perhaps my favorite is “The Coat Girl”, in which Mr. Taylor describes what seems to be a high school love affair with a troubled young poet. As she struggles with mental illness, he writes, “they say your case was growing worse, though your IQ was rising like the tide crashing under your bouts of depression.” Ahhhhhh. But, then, again, how could the narrative of a fallen angel on a quest for imperfection, “The Eleventh Commandment”, fail to be my favorite? Or the characterization of the stripper in “The second book by my new favorite author”? Oh to hell with choosing favorites! I strongly suggest that you read the first book by MY new favorite author, Sean Taylor."- Charles Kruger of TheRumpus.net reviews Everything to do with You.