Why is it that the greatest suffering always involves someone or something that we love? Perhaps because the loss of, the imperfection of, the mere existence of pleasure invites pain. In The Pleasure You Suffer, authors inquire into this phenomenon of pleasure’s linkage to pain through short stories and poetry.

From bad relationships to unrequited love, from parental issues to dissatisfaction with employment, the authors of The Pleasure You Suffer explore the pain in pleasure through a variety of lenses. There are some pieces, like The Good Tombstone by Joseph G. Peterson, that are so heartbreaking and visceral that it’s hard to remember they’re fiction. A story about a widower who plays the lottery in hopes of buying his dead wife a more appropriate tombstone, Peterson hits at the essence of pain in love and loss.

Then there are poems like Rachel Slotnick’s The Perfume that is so profoundly introspective despite it’s sad content, that Slotnick is able to remove the reader from despondency and put her in a place of love and warmth. Slotnick essentially argues that we are nothing without the one’s we love, even if it is painful to lose them.

Overall, The Pleasure You Suffer is an absolutely beautiful and courageous set of works that is well worth its pages. Every piece is unique and says something slightly different about the same running theme.

Published by Tortoise Books, in June of 2016 The Pleasure You Suffer is available for purchase at your local bookstore.

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FTC Disclaimer: This book was given to me in return for a fair and honest review of the text.