Published earlier this year from Awst Press, Brian Phillip Whalen’s Semiotic Love is a debut collection that experiments with form. “Taken as a whole,” writes reviewer Meera Parasuraman, “reading Brian Philip Whalen’s Semiotic Love is like eating a multi-layered trifle, digging into scoop upon scoop of people, events, and emotions, topped with clever narrative techniques and symbols, all drizzled with language that is as rich as it is innovative.” Read the full review below.
In Semiotic Love, Brian Phillip Whalen employs his own dazzling array of storytelling methods with a lyrical turn of phrase to entrance the reader.
The book has an intriguing structure. It is in three parts: the first has eleven small stories, and the last, ten, while the middle only features one story (eponymously named “Semiotic Love”). All follow a diverse ensemble of characters navigating love and family relationships. These characters are largely unnamed, giving a sense of their emotional unity through their anonymity.
