hidden monkey - Crisp by R.W. Gray

Oh monkey, why do you hide from me?


Is it my breath?


TELL ME THE TRUTH, DAMN YOU!





Today's hidden monkey:

Crisp (NeWest Press, 2010)
by R.W. Gray

the hidden monkey plot: Well, these are short stories, so there is no plot per se (however, there is a perfect excuse to use the phrase per se). But to give you a taste of their contents: "Waves" is an exquisite glimpse into a one-night stand with a whale trainer; "Crisp" concerns two brothers whose father is burning eternally in a car fire while their mother swells to bursting inside their house; "Sunflowers" is a breathtakingly sweet tale of an old woman's infatuation with the new young priest of her church; "Wabi Sabi" maps out a wife's attempts to mold and whittle her fisherman husband into a more pleasing form.

why is this monkey hidden? Short stories are classically a harder sell for audiences, and unless a collection catches fire (or awards glory), they more often than not gather dust on the shelves. I really only became aware of Gray's collection after the two of us joined forces in a Writers' Circle event out here in Fredericton. Crisp may yet gather a larger audience, however, as its recent nomination for the Danuta Gleed Award certainly provides it with an extra oomph.

what does the shelf monkey think? I'm a big fan of magic realism, when done correctly, and Crisp has more than its fair share. Witness this small segment of "Wabi Sabi" after the husband has come home and destroyed his wife's pottery:

In the crisp morning air, she reached out with her two hands and placed them around his ridged and bent-to-purpose neck. She began again, kind, the way she was with flawed clay. Smaller clumps of him fell to the porch as she worked out the impurities, the air bubbles.
In the morning she awoke to peaches in the air, and found him in the kitchen making impressionistic waffles, a wounded apology on his lips. He was smaller now, shorter than her, and several kinds of sorry.

That's the kind of imagination I love, the ability to combine the fantastic with the humdrum ordinariness of life. In Crisp, no one questions how it is a woman can continually whittle a man into something new, how a fire can never be extinguished, why a trailer should suddenly up and slowly (oh so slowly) roll to the ocean and no one thinks to stop it. Beyond this, Crisp is a revelatory collection, delicate in execution and brutal in impact. Gray has a light touch, almost invisible, and his stories dance across the page even as they leave indelible impressions in the mind. Like the best short story writers, Gray understands the importance of being concise, of never wasting a word. His characters are all yearning for something, something beyond their control; love, or stability, or silence, or sanity.

hidden monkey verdict: this monkey shouldn't stay hidden. come out, little monkey, don't be scared

hidden monkey - Because I Have Loved and Hidden It, by Elise Moser

Today, a new monkey joins the shelves. The hidden monkey.

Or hidden book, if you will. The book that, for one reason or another, never got the attention it desired (leastwise, from the shelf monkey).

Which, of course, goes for most books. But since blogging is largely subjective, I'll allow myself the power to decide what precisely constitutes a hidden monkey.

These will be short, pithy reviews, because sometimes, my longwindedness overwhelms me.

Today's debut instalment:

Because I Have Loved and Hidden It (Cormorant Books, 2009)
by Elise Moser

the hidden monkey plot: Julia is a fortyish woman whose mother has just passed away. At the funeral, her Uncle Paul reveals a startling revelation about her past, one that her mother has kept hidden away until now. In a parallel plotline, Julia's married lover Nicholas has gone missing, and as she strikes up an unlikely friendship with his wife, Julia finds herself becoming unmoored from the life she thought she knew.

why is this monkey hidden? It is a fact of literary life that sometimes (hell, most times), despite glowing reviews, quality books deserving of love fall between the cracks. Until I had cause to meet the author Elise Moser in person, I had never heard of Because I Have Loved at all.

what does the shelf monkey think? Because I Have Loved and Hidden It is gloriously lush and sensual, a deeply passionate examination of one woman's spiritual rebirth, if that isn't too hackneyed and overused a phrase. Moser displays a raw carnality that is refreshing, never playing coy but giving full force to the emotional erruptions Julia faces. The plot description may seem the stuff of soap operas, but Moser is a gifted storyteller, bringing Julia to life with delicate notes that enbue her with emotional realism. There are a few jarring moments - references to The X-Files and other popular entertainments are at odds with the subtlety of Moser's prose - but overall this is a sterling novel, one to be savoured.

hidden monkey verdict: this monkey deserves to come out of the shadows.