I absolutely adored Arnold’s story and I wish I had more of it.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-arc!

This was my first Martin Goodman title, and can I just say this was really fascinating. I don't normally read short stories just because I feel like the characters and the stories are never fleshed out enough. However, I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I love reading books where I learn something about a culture or a group of people that I don't have stake in. The LGBTQ+ community is a space in which I am not super familiar, and this was definitely a book where I felt interested in learning about it.
Thank you so much to Netgalley, Martin Goodman, and the publishing company behind this title for giving me the opportunity to read this title early.

A bunch of short stories with one of them appearing and continuing after every few, this collection was interestingly strange. With queer themes, it starts off well but then these stories descend into abstracted prose, and not the magical realism kind, that makes it difficult for me to follow. I found myself going huh, okaaay then, what… The one story that keeps appearing again and again of our protagonist Arnold, comes across as disjointed episodes within life rather than a continuous narrative with the format letting it down.

Thank you NetGalley and barbican press for eARC in exchange of an honest review

Lessons from Cruising is a collection of short stories that ultimately looks at connection. The stories cover several topics ranging from family relationships, love, grief, sexuality & acceptance, and friendship. For me, short stories are some of my favorite to read. I love to examine a moment in time that can seem ordinary, but are usually far from it. For this particular book, I really enjoyed:

- I LOVE the LGBTQ+ representation!!! It is soooo needed for people to see themselves represented/expand their world view.
- There were a few lines that really had me like “I’ve already met your parents,’ he said before I brought him home. ‘You’ve repeated all the rubbish they’ve ever said.’ That indeed stopped me in my tracks in the best way. There were other moments that conveyed tender, human connection as well as the stressful miscommunications that we have.

However, I did feel that these stories did fall short for me for a few reasons:

- The best part about a short story collection is that you feel connected to characters. I found some of these characters…interesting. For example, in Arnold’s story (who is the only character who gets several short stories) I could not get over how…strange his parents were. I had such a hard time wrapping my head around the way they spoke and treated their son - and I’m not talking about their admiration/acceptance for their son, I’m talking about the c*m jar that his dad “celebrates” and them (from what I understood) picking a partner for Arnold. It didn’t exactly resonate with me. There were several other lines in this book that took me out of the reading experience as well (“He slips on good manners like he slips on condoms, not because they suit him but because they make life safer”). Lastly, I struggled to believe that a priest would be so candid with their parishioners. I could see the value in his honesty, but wow.

An extraordinary collection of short stories. I particularly enjoyed coming back to Arnold at different points in his life throughout the book. This was a nice device to keep the text together.

What stood out for me in this book was the metaphorical quality of the writing and how often the prose seemed literal only to turn out to be figurative, with Goodman's imagery shining through and revealing a different reading of the story. Although a collection of short stories, I felt the characterisation meant that I knew characters well (and not just those who were recurrent in the Arnold stories).

Finally, I don't know the story of Billy Budd, but the final story in the collection has left me needing to know more. What better sign that that?!

I was intrigued by the description and would have really liked to like this book. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me. Arnold’s parents were so overly accepting of his queerness that it seemed to me to be akin to grooming. One story contained such bizarre moments as ritually sprinkling his first come into the river at his parents’ encouragement (with an audience of members of the public!), and receiving an ivory comb from his family for his new pubescent pubic hair. I felt as if there was some hidden meaning or symbolism to the familial relationships which was perhaps going over my head.

I did love the dedication: “For James / Who adds the gladness to gay”

I enjoyed Lessons from Cruising. I’m going to go back and read it again because some stories were hard to get my head around, like, what was that I just read! The stories are a mixture of weird and heart wrenching. I especially enjoyed When toffee-apples turn to juice and Lessons from cruising. I found The loving room to be weird and creepy.

I haven't read the book yet, but I wanted to rate it what I think the book will be and when i'm finished i'll be able to see if my first impressions of the book were correct.

3⭐

I'm not sure how i feel right now, this seems like it might just be an okay read.