All There Is

Dave Isay

Peabody and MacArthur winner Isay (Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps, 2010, etc.) presents readers with another compelling collection of stories centered on love and marriage. In more than 30 touching personal accounts, interviewees talk of falling in love, remembering a lost loved one or finding love when they felt it was no longer possible to love or be loved.

Covering long-term relationships and newlyweds, gay and straight partners and long-distance interracial bonds formed via e-mails and letters, the devotion to another person continues despite wars, illness and death. A look, a touch, a smile, the color of someone’s hair—these are the tiny details that we remember because “love is all there is…when you take your last breath you remember the people you love, how much love you inspired, and how much love you gave.”

Full of warmth and affection, friendship and tenderness, the overall feeling of the collection is summed up by contributor Sonya, who states, “there’s nobody I’d rather travel through life with than you.” These stories, writes Isay, “speak to the enduring and redemptive power of love…In a culture that often feels consumed by all that’s phony or famous, these stories give me hope.” More stories would have been welcome, but these myriad forms of love will provoke readers to contemplate their own love lives with a new sense of depth.