Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger

"So I loved you for your courage and your gentle sense of shame,
And I loved you for your laughter and your language and your name,
And I knew it was impossible, but I loved you just the same,
Though the only love I gave to you was hard love."
-Bob Franke

Before reading Ellen Wittlinger's novel Hard Love I was unfamiliar with the work of Bob Franke but now find myself awed by his poetry. I think that Wittlinger was as well when she transposed the characters of Hard Love from the realm of the imagination to the page. And these characters, wow, they will move you. Zines are the mode of expression for our two main players, John (a.k.a. Gio) and Marisol, who share their pain and triumphs through the written word. Both deal with issues of abandonment and identity which is magnified through their relationship. See--Marisol is gay and Gio finds himself falling in love with her. Can love still exist between members of the opposite sex without physical consummation? Perhaps--but what you'll have left is hard love.