"Falling in love was simple; one only had to yield. Digesting another person, however, and sustaining love, was bloody work, and not a soft job."

'Midnight All Day' is a collection of short stories that covers similar ground to the author's best-selling novel, 'Intimacy'.Each story, with the exception of the final one,'The Penis', look at failing marriages, often marriages with children, from a different point of view.'Four Blue Chairs', 'Girl', 'Morning in the Bowl of Night' and the title story, 'Midnight All Day', all explore relationships between men who've left their wives for younger lovers.

In 'The Penis', porn-star Doug wakes up one morning to find his living penis and scrotum missing. After spending the day chasing the penis around London Doug finally manages to catch it when it falls asleep. He takes it to a cosmetic surgeon who, for a large sum of money, sews it back on and Doug lives happily ever after, if hugely in debt.

Despite all the stories being told from a male point of view and each one having taken a newer, younger lover they seem to feel little pleasure. In fact cruelty rather than love seems to be the central theme and unlike the penis all the men appear weak and flaccid.

On the whole I'm not a great fan of short stories but am a fan of the author which is why I picked it up. I quite enjoyed 'The Penis' and it certainly lifted the mood at the end of the book which on the whole left me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth, largely I suspect because it has a ring of truth about it, the grass isn't always greener. A quick read but not one that will live long in the memory. ( )

los relatos aquí reunidos plantean situaciones inquietantes. diez relatos de una crueldad sin compasión. ( )

Short stories about depressed, divorced, middle-aged dads in Notting Hill or somewhere: fairly uniformly miserable, with only the occasional touch of humour, mostly directed against himself. There are a couple of really good, memorable pieces: "Strangers when we meet", in which a young actor's plans to slip away for a few days with his lover are upset when her husband comes along, and "Four blue chairs", in which a couple who have rather tentatively moved in together after leaving their previous partners are faced with the challenge of getting some furniture home from Habitat. (Well, you didn't think it was going to be MFI, did you..?) But the rest is much of a muchness, with only the final rather silly fable about an escaped penis to lighten the mood a bit. ( )

Doesn't live upto "Love in a Blue time"! ( )