Hopefawn Levenson Reviews Cochran Novel

Title: In Love with Eleanor Rigby
Author: Stacey Cochran.
Author's Web site: http://www.staceycochran.com/

ISBN: 9781456595814.

Reviewed by Hopefawn Levenson for Bookstove.com .


Stacey Cochran's four star novellette, “In Love with Eleanor Rigby” is a snack of a story which fills you up and tides you over well until your next meal. Concise and neat, the story has a positive message for people looking for a fresh start or for acceptance.
Cochran’s stream of conscious style of writing in this book reminds me a bit of William S. Burroughs, “Naked Lunch,"  but simpler to digest and enjoy. Noticeably, “In Love with Eleanor Rigby” is ironically about a life rebuilding from the start and not the self-indulgent wallowing of a substance abuser from the bottom of an intoxicating bottle or dropper. The first person perspective offers a look into the psyche and heart of a man struggling with an affliction of his soul. We get an excellent first hand account of the fight or flight phenomenon.

As a protagonist goes, Joe, a likeable carpenter and recovering alcoholic, has an easy manner in spite of his awkward interactions with the his love interest, Tabitha Merriweather and the real world. His struggle to be honest about his dark places inside with someone new is tense and touches a raw nerve in anyone who has wanted to be loved authentically.

If you have a sensitive bone in your body, whether you’ve struggled with the disease of addiction personally or through someone else, or perhaps not at all, this is a poignant, often funny-bone tickling, engaging read.

Mr. Cochran is author of such works as; The Colorado Sequence, Amber Page, and The Legend of the Coral Stone.


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