Webb's work is both a rejoinder to the heteropatriarchal strictures and binaries which render the tenderness between men suspect, and a powerful testament to loving and letting oneself be loved; the tragedy, if there is one, of the lives he draws into conversation with one another is that of the damage done when one refuses or thinks oneself unworthy of desire and affection. Strange Relations is written with great compassion, great humanity, and great poetry--the latter in particular a refreshing thing in works of prose non-fiction.