{"id":10565,"date":"2021-08-26T11:20:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=10565"},"modified":"2021-08-26T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T21:05:01","slug":"love-starved-a-sexual-awakening-by-d-h-chester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=10565","title":{"rendered":"Love-Starved: A sexual awakening by D.H. Chester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An intriguing examination of love, lust, and passion\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chester\u2019s candid, coming-of-age collection of short stories narrates his own journey from a traumatic childhood event to a delayed sexual awakening as an adult as he tackles themes of sexual identity, shame, guilt, LGBTQ stigma, and self-discovery. As a little boy, Chester has always struggled with his mother\u2019s disciplinarian nature. As he begins his adolescent years, he finds himself becoming attracted to other boys. Burdened with guilt and shame, Chester throws himself into his studies, striving to be a straight A student. With his mother\u2019s failure to acknowledge any of his achievements, he longs to be free of the stifling home environment.\u00a0 A chance to live in Japan arises, providing Chester an opportunity to expand his wings and experiment with his sexuality. With intuition and insight, Chester portrays his plight as an adolescent growing up in a strict household in the stifled environment of the 1970s as he struggles with issues of self-worth, low self-esteem, conflicted feelings about his sexual identity, and his mother’s high expectations. \u201cThe First Summer\u201d tells the story of the author\u2019s first time in Japan and his meeting with Manabu, who eventually becomes his life partner. In \u201cMr. White Bathing Suit,\u201d the author, weary of his mundane existence in a stale relationship (with Manabu, who is dedicated to his corporate job and has no time for Chester) is actively looking outside for physical satisfaction. \u201cWinter Dies a Slow Death,\u201d \u201cMr. Young Businessman,\u201d and \u201cEddie\u201d are sketched on similar lines, with the author finding passionate sexual partners in complete strangers. In \u201cNagoya Nights,\u201d Chester comes across a kindred spirit in a working young guy. \u201cMr. China\u201d is all about raw lust and passion whereas \u201cOut of Town\u201d delves into loneliness and pain as two people struggle with their partners\u2019 emotional abandonment. The heartwarming \u201cThe Sunlight on His Face,\u201d the last entry in the collection, ends on a positive note as Manabu leaves his corporate job behind to be with Chester. Chester\u2019s portrayal of his own shame, guilt, and lust in the face of his growing awareness about his sexual identity is both candid and etched in reality. In depicting his own struggles, Chester adeptly examines the intricacies of human nature, love, lust, passion, infidelity, enduring relationships, and the vulnerabilities of the vast gay population, who remain broken amid their ongoing trials with identity, stigma, shame, understanding, and acceptance. Set against the vibrant background of glistening Japan and heartbreaking and funny at once, the book makes for an engrossing read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love-Starved: A sexual awakening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By D.H. Chester<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shining Hour Publishing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date September 20, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASIN B08JM1KHMJ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $3.15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An intriguing examination of love, lust, and passion\u2026 Chester\u2019s candid, coming-of-age collection of short stories narrates his own journey from a traumatic childhood event to a delayed sexual awakening as an adult as he tackles themes of sexual identity, shame, guilt, LGBTQ stigma, and self-discovery. As a little boy, Chester has always struggled with his mother\u2019s disciplinarian nature. As he begins his adolescent years, he finds himself becoming attracted to other boys. Burdened with guilt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":10566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[7223,91,3328,178,1747,1136176,1473,1008073,856121,309,349],"class_list":["post-10565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-fiction","tag-indie-books","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/love-starved.jpg?fit=313%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-2Kp","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10565"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10579,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10565\/revisions\/10579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}