Sadness, anger, joy, happiness, love, lust … “Symptoms of Terminal Passion” has it all. Chester Aaron’s compilation of short stories takes the reader to the depth of the soul of each character – a part of each character that everyone one of us can relate to.

Aaron, a World War II veteran himself, references several of the stories during that era. There is much passion and compassion shown as the characters experience a blurb of their life. “The sergeant lowered his eyes and turned away, knowing that if he did not turn away he would take her into his arms. … He wanted to say, Wait, I’ll get you a blanket, but when he looked back she was gone.”

Other stories are of daily life, simple, yet with much deep meaning – from raising a teenager to naming the hummingbirds that come to the feeder, from reclaiming ancestry to aging. Every story twists and turns within the plot, sometimes with a surprise ending, others with an “aha” and yet others with a “hummm, that’s interesting.”

I found myself, after reading a story, sitting back and contemplating the situation. It’s hard to pin point exactly what it was that struck a chord within me, yet something did. Aaron’s writing is uncomplicated, flows easy, and I found myself wrapped up in the story as though I was right there in each scene.

Symptoms of Terminal Passion

Chester Aaron

El Leon Literary Arts (2006)

ISBN 9780979298373

Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (7/06)