All Around They’re Taking Down The Lights by Adam Berlin is a collection of short pieces exploring masculinity. These men are flawed, making them relatable. You might know some of them, you might even be one of these fellas.

They are presented to us as is and without judgment. Some reflect on themselves and their masculinity, others don't. Deciding if they're good people or not is up to the reader. I don't think that's the point of the presentation but I'm not standing in the way if someone wants to call some of these guys what they are.

The idea of masculinity and the tropes that come with it are on full display in these pages. This isn't a celebration though. You can't, or at least shouldn't, come away from this collection thinking about how great conventional ideas about masculinity are. At the same time, this isn't a condemnation.

This is a collection about making it. The reader is given the chance to consider what we mean when we say: Make It. Those two magical, powerful words that seem to mostly come from people who haven't made it.

This collection is a sort of purgatory for men who keep repeating the mantra that they're going to make it. At the same time, if Hollywood is a boulevard of broken dreams, this collection is a graveyard. Each story a tombstone for some victim who either didn't make it or is stuck in a futile infinite loop of trying to make it, always this close to making it, thinking that making it is just around the corner.

These don't always go where you expect, and they don't always end how you would guess. I think there's a nuanced struggle at the core of what I call ‘masculinity under patriarchy’, and these stories tap into or hint at that uncomfortable truth. I enjoyed these.