Reviewed by Kate

One of the hardest things for parents is watching their children's heartache over love and knowing that there is nothing they can do but offer sympathy. In "First Love", a father is faced with his son's first disappointment in love. He reaches back into his memories for some way to connect with his son.

Somebody in the guestbook commented that "no-one has a father like that", and I must disagree. I have a father like that, who told me the story of his first love, a Catholic girl whose parents forbade her to see him (an Anglican). He told me at a time when I was agonizing over a boy, and it made me see him in a different way, a grown-up way, just as the son in this story comes to see his father.

It's a technically good story, nice tight dialogue, with only a few places where the showing slips into telling. "A look of affection transformed Tom's face" If Tom is the narrating character, and he certainly seems to be, then that is something that he wouldn't/couldn't know. Also, the point would be made just as well if the story ended at "When the time was right, he let go". Trust your readers, Zalman, they will know what you mean.