Everything Fifty Shades of Grey is Not

You have no doubt heard your friends discussing or perhaps you read one of the many reviews and blog posts about the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Well I am here to tell you that “Dandelion Man – the four loves” is the antithesis of that sordid tale.

Walt Kreucher’s first novel titled “Dandelion Man – the four loves” is a fictional memoire dealing with the difficult decisions that crop up in relationships.

Precious few individuals will marry their high school sweetheart and live happily ever after. This story is about the rest of us. It is about the four loves C. S. Lewis describes in his book by the same name. There are two basic types of love, need love and gift love. We have all experienced both of these even if we do not know them by these designations.

C. S. Lewis recognizing its complexity categorized love using the four Greek words for love.  Each type of love exists separate yet often together with the others in a complex interconnected framework. Dandelion Man takes the reader on a grand tour of love set in and around the city of Detroit during the late 60’s and early 70’s, a time of the Age of Aquarius, Hair and free love. But don’t expect all that, this is the Eros side of love not the Venus side.

Wally arrives at the funeral of the father of his first love where he meets dee once again after forty years greeting her with a kiss on the forehead. Dee introduces her dear friend to her twenty something daughter, Corinne. “Momma never told me much about you but every once in a while she lets slip a piece of a story; usually when she’s trying to teach me about growing up and love and all that. I really want to know what momma was like as a young girl. See, I think of her as only momma. When she scolds me, it’s like she never did anything wrong or made any mistakes. I want to know what she was like growing up. Does she truly understand what I am going through?”

Anxious to learn what her mother was like as a teenager, the two make plans to meet for dinner where the protagonist reminisces about his first love and provides the daughter insights into a unique facet of her mom. 

Like the C. S. Lewis books, this novel has strong undertones of Christian values.

Currently available for Kindle and other e-readers at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008D1T9W8 and available shortly in paperback.