The stories in Wegner's 'Love is Not a Dirty Word' drive home just how human humans are. The characters often exhibit weakness, misperception, lack of self-knowledge, and even, at times, meanness, but in the end they are always, without a doubt, completely and totally human, with fundamental human characteristics that redeem them. They are for the most part blue collar, kids and teens and adults not at the bottom, but certainly in the bottom half, of our culture's socioeconomic structure, but their struggles drive home the undeniable fact that ultimately we're all the same in our conflicts, our uncertainty, our mistakes, and our abiding love of other humans.