Book excerpt: Tales of love, sex, and relationships as only “one of the great . . . American short story writers” can tell them (The Washington Post Book World). A one-night stand begins a tragic journey that consumes a man’s soul in “Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine.” Afraid to interact with men who would condemn her as ugly, a young woman imagines herself living the love lives of every woman she sees until one daydream becomes a nightmare in “Mona at Her Windows.” On “A Path Through the Darkness,” a man struggles to understand his attraction to a cruel, morbid woman. Multi-award-winning author Harlan Ellison shatters the rose-colored glasses view of romance in these and other stories, coming to understand the elusive power of love about in terms of the primal passions and emotional onslaughts human beings engage. Insightful and devastating, these are realistic depictions of men and women desperate to connect and communicate, only to discover that love doesn’t conquer all. Includes: “The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie,” “The Universe of Robert Blake,” “G.B.K.—A Many Flavored Bird,” “Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine,” “Riding the Dark,” “Train Out,” “Moonlighting,” “What I Did on My Vacation this Summer by Little Bobby,” “Hirschhorn, Age 27,” “Mona at Her Windows,” “Blind Bird, Blind Bird, Go Away from Me!,” “Passport,” “I Curse the Lesson and Bless the Knowledge,” “Battle Without Banners,” “A Path,” “Through the Darkness,” “A Prayer for No One’s Enemy,” “Punky & the Yale Men”