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Two Tall
Tales and One Short Novel
Heidi
James, Kay Sexton, Lucy Fry
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"I
played at being a hairdresser and brushed her human hair just to look
more thoroughly for wolf tricks. I looked for gaps in her pretend skin
where wiry fur might poke through. She was very thorough. I never found
a thing. "
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Reviewed by Vanessa
Gebbie
Without
wishing to pun, Heidi James’s The Mesmerists’
Daughter is just that, mesmerizing. This
writer’s prose is lovely, a tumble of sensuous images
describing the world of the story through the eyes of a damaged child
who believes her mother is a wolf. The characters are strong and
engaging. They drew this reader in completely, allowing me to let go
into the consciousness of the child as we journeyed in the fictive
dream through some critical discoveries. And isn’t this what
reading is about? To let us escape for a moment into another world, to
walk alongside new characters, learn something about life through
them?
Kay
Sexton’s Smokin’
The Queen is an equally strong piece of writing, but very
different. I was willingly transported, thanks to this
writer’s skills, into the life of Darius, a drug-damaged
black DJ, and his deeply moving relationship with an elderly neighbour,
a relationship that leads indirectly to an extraordinary formative
episode in his life. I loved this character! He is a wonderful
invention, and through him, when I put the story down, I knew I had had
my eyes opened a little, and would see the world slightly differently
from now on. The prose is crisp, clear. Some very acute
observations.
I did
not have the same reactions to the third piece in this anthology, Lucy
Fry’s novella, In the Clear. It is long, taking up just over half
of the book, and for this reader, was not nearly as engaging as the
rest. It is written in second person, a hard thing to pull off. This
piece reads like a teenage diary to me, and I found it impossible to
engage with or care for the characters. Indeed, one of the characters
is Lucy Fry herself and as the piece is dedicated somewhat coyly to
‘you of course’, I wondered on many levels what
this was doing here. There are places where the text is set
‘cleverly’, words all over the place…
but the words are anything but clever. Then there are other places,
hidden away, where the writer shows flashes of stronger writing. But I wonder
how many readers will find them?
Vanessa Gebbie's short
fiction is widely published and has won many awards including prizes at
Fish 2007 and Bridport 2007. Her first collection is forthcoming from
Salt Publishing, Cambridge, in March 2008. Her novel in progress won a
first prize at The Daily Telegraph novel competition 2007.
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Publisher: Apis Books
Publication Date:
July
2007
Paperback/Hardback?
Paperback
Author
bio:Heidi James is Arts
Editor of 3:AM Magazine, and a recipient of the Sophie Warne
Fellowship. Publications include: the novel Carbon, Wrecking Ball
Press, 2007, a collaboration with photographer Tara Darby and designer
Damien Piulien, We Are Only Human (2007); and short stories in Paris
Bitter Hearts Pit, Dreams That Money Can Buy, Ambit, The Off Beat
Generation, City Sickness, Open Wide Magazine, and Full Moon Empty
Sports Bag.
Kay Sexton writes for the UK’s premier sustainability
journal, Green Futures, and has recently completed Green Thoughts in an
Urban Shade, a collaboration with painter Fion Gunn that explores and
celebrates the parks and urban spaces of four cities in words and
images. Green Thought was given residencies in London, Dublin, and
Beijing. A prolific writer of short fiction, she is widely published,
has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has written at least one
novel.
Lucy Fry holds two degrees in English Literature, and has wanted to be
a writer since she was a child.
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