BLOG TOUR
Book Title: The Book of Oded, Chapter 2
Author and Publisher: Oded Kassirer
Release Date: October 8, 2025
Genres: Gay Non-Fiction Memoir
Tropes: A kind of forbidden love
Themes: Coming out, HIV/AIDS
Length: approx. 25 000 words/ 94 pages
Heat Rating: No sexual content
It is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links - Available in Paperback and Kindle Unlimited
Paperback also available from IngramSpark
A Story of Love in 17 parts
A poetic and deeply personal exploration of love, identity, and spiritual truth through a queer lens — part reflection, part quiet confession. This book speaks to anyone who’s searched for belonging or inner peace.
Blurb
The Book of Oded, Chapter 2: A Story of Love in 17 Parts is a true story told through seventeen short reflections, each introduced by a photograph.
This real-life memoir follows Oded Kassirer’s journey through love in its many forms—love that comforts, love that tests us, and love that stays even when people are gone. With honesty and openness, Oded shares moments from his own life, weaving together memory, relationships, and the everyday search for meaning.
Each part begins with an image, creating a rhythm of words and photos that invite the reader to pause, reflect, and connect. The book moves gently between joy and loss, humor and sorrow, offering a window into how love shapes us over time.
The Book of Oded, Chapter 2 is both deeply personal and universal—a reminder that behind every story of one life, there is also the story of love itself.
Excerpt
Looks like I don’t have to do that anymore, since Gil and I are dating now. Well… Gil being a lieutenant in the Israeli army, we only see each other once every two or three weeks, for maybe a day and a half. So we’re dating-lite.
But there’s more. You see, I’m out, and Gil is… well, I'm in a bigger closet than Gil.. OK, let me explain something about coming out and closets: you don’t just come out once and you’re done. No. You come out of the closet you’re in, into a slightly bigger closet. First, friends know. Then some family. Then all family, maybe a few coworkers. And so on, into bigger and bigger closets, until one day you think you’re totally out. But when you hesitate to put a photo of you and your boyfriend on your work desk, you realize: you’re still in a closet. A really big one, but still a closet.
So in my case, my friends know, and some of my family knows too. But as I start dating Gil, I find myself stepping backwards into a smaller closet. Back to lying to my family and friends. They ask: “So how do you know this guy Gil? He’s four, five years younger than you.”
“Oh, he’s my friend.”
“But we are your friends…”
And with Gil’s family it’s worse. We have to invent a background story, making sure our lies match. It’s back to lying and living a double life — something I’ve always hated.
Maybe because we don’t actually live together, and only see each other once in a while, I agree to it. Maybe I don’t value enough the freedom of being out. Or maybe I need to go through this to finally understand it.
And so Gil and I continue to keep our relationship very low profile. We have to be creative to communicate. Gil is stationed at a small base in the Golan Heights, just a few hours north of Tel Aviv, right on the border with Syria. When I call him, I can’t say what I really want to say. All the lines are tapped—not to catch gay soldiers, but to make sure nobody leaks classified information. Gil, being an intelligence lieutenant, is very aware of this. So even saying “I miss you” is, for him, like shouting into the phone: “GAY! GAY! GAY!”
So we come up with a code. We both love listening to Sarah Vaughan, the jazz singer. “Sarah” becomes our password. Our way of saying what we can’t.
“Hey Gil, how are you? Oh, by the way, Sarah really misses you.”
“Tell her I miss her too.”
“And she wants you to know that she loves you.”
“Tell her I love her too.”
It works—until one day, Gil can’t come to the phone and I leave a message with someone else: “Could you please tell Gil that… Sarah misses him?” When Gil finds out, all hell breaks loose.
About the Author
Oded Kassirer was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, and moved to Los Angeles in 1988. His creative journey began in film and animation, where he worked on major studio projects before turning toward acting, writing, and personal storytelling.
Alongside his career in the arts, Oded has explored photography and visual expression, blending images and words to reflect the intimate moments of everyday life. The Book of Oded: A Story of Love in 17 Parts is his first book - a true story that combines memoir and photographs in a deeply personal exploration of love, memory, and connection.
He lives in Los Angeles, with his husband, Oscar.
Author Links
Guest Post
I was thinking of writing about my book. Why I wrote it, what it is about and what came out of writing it. But then I felt that there’s something more important form me to write about. It is about the writing itself. As a teenager I dabbled in light writing: a poem here and there, an idea for a short story, and even a scene or two from a play that since then was never actually written. And then, as I became an adult, I stopped writing altogether. I am not sure why.
Years later, I was working as an animator in a big Hollywood studio, feeling like something was missing, I turned to writing at my coach’s advice. The whole story of what I call ‘the story behind the story’ is the preface to my book, so I won’t continue with it here. I realized now, years later, after my writing became a successful one man show and now a published book, that when I was writing it, I did not write a show, or a book, or anything specific. I was writing because I believed that this will help me with my creativity. I was writing because I felt that something wanted to come out. I was writing for myself, and for myself only. Without expectations, future plans, limitations or any inhibitions whatsoever!
And this is what I wanted to tell you here: Even though some genres of writing will ask for some research, like the fiction piece I am working on now, or even some planning, like some mystery or detective books, but when you are sitting to write, preferably in your very own ‘writing spot’, forget all that. In those moments that you are writing, nothing else exists. It’s just you and the story. Let it out. Let it flow. Let it write itself. Write for yourself. Trust that it is there. Trust that you are writing the right word, the correct sentence, the perfect conversation. If you need to change anything, you can always do it later, when you’re editing what you write. Treat the writer/artist/storyteller in you as you would treat a little kid: naive, pure, curious, accepting, loving, playful. Love your writer/creator unconditionally. Don’t criticize them. Support them with all your might. Always be there for them. If you feel stuck and can’t write, be kind to yourself.
Close your eyes. Place your hand on your heart and whisper: “Thank you. I love you”.
Repeat as many times as you can.
Thank you. I love you.
Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors
Ornery Owl's Review
Five out of Five Stars
This memoir is like an album composed of starkly beautiful snapshots. The interconnected vignettes are brief and to the point, wasting no time with frills and excess. I appreciated the author's honesty in revealing both the beautiful and painful moments in his relationship with his onetime partner and later longtime friend, Gil. This book can easily be read in a single afternoon, although if it touches your heart as it did mine, you'll wish you could extend the time you spent following Oded as he takes you on a tour of his life's memories.
