fierce

Truthfully, I wasn't optimistic about Fierce when I started it. This Canadian collection of short stories and a novella features more emotionally and physically damaged people than it should be humanly possible for one writer to conjure. Doesn't the author, Hannah Holborn, know anyone even remotely normal?

But then a strange thing happened during 'The Indian Act'. I sort of fell in love. Suddenly these crazy, damaged, sad people started making sense to me. 'The Indian Act' follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of Liam, a kid who is shuffled from one foster home to the next until he finally finds a family who is decent and loves him and his best friend, Callie, whose mother just up and leaves her.

'We Danced Without Strings' tells the heartbreaking story of a mother coming to terms with her daughter's diagnosis of Angelman's Syndrome; a condition which includes an absence of speech, facial abnormalities, a protruding tongue, hand-flapping, jerky gait and, strangely, a permanent smile and easy laughter. "If we let her," the mother muses, "she would be happy."

'Ugly Cruising' gives us a glimpse at another kid, Elvin, with another horrible condition: Treacher Collins syndrome. "He has a torso and all the usual appendages," Elvin's younger sister, Cricket, notes "but what he does lack is a nose and a chin and a voice to confront others with." Cricket's family deals with with Elvin's condition in various ways: his mother, Wanda, drinks; his father, Bing, makes lame jokes and Cricket and her teenage friends apply horrible theatrical makeup and go Ugly Cruising.

The book's novella, 'River Rising' is a beautiful conclusion to this book. The story follows the lives and fates of the people of a small northern town called Everlasting. Central to this story is River, a teenager who has spent her life mourning the mother she barely knew. The choices she makes are both inevitable and heartbreaking and, ultimately, hopeful.

Although there were a couple stories I just didn't warm up to, by the time I closed the book on Holborn's strange cast of misfits I felt sort of sad to be leaving their company.

Fierce by Hannah Holborn

Fierce is a wonderful mix of writing styles, individual short stories and a novella. I will deal with the short stories first. I found the stories to be unrelated to each other, different types of stories, although some have a similar basic theme. Hannah has an exciting style that serves her well. The stories can flow into one another, or they can be read one story at a time with breaks between. There are nine short stories in all, dealing with such subjects as sudden death, the ones left behind, ghosts, living with mental and physical deformities, memories, lost souls and sexual crimes, and healing. They show an insight and charm that negates the depression of some subjects. The stories are very well written, some very short and others longer, a little mystic at times. Regardless, there seems to be a message of despair in some that turn to hope. Don't imagine the book to be depressing, it isn't. It delves into peoples' lives in fascinating ways. Most take place in or around water; I assume this is probably coastal. Hannah Holborn is a Canadian author living in White Rock, B.C. She has worked with the First Nations, inner-city youth, and the mentally ill which shows in her writing. Most of the stories are centered around young people and their families or foster families. The stories are easy to read, enlightening, and often witty.

The novella makes up the second half of the book, River Rising. This story takes place in the fictional very small town of Everlasting, Yukon, situated between Dawson City and Mayo. It is a town of dysfunctional citizens and families living out their lives with high unemployment and too much gossip. Isolated as they are, they have only each other and drink for entertainment. The characters are once again well-defined, and there are underlying stories of love and hope. Difficult as their lives are, I felt at the end I wanted the story go on.

The book is complex, creates whole lifetimes in short stories and the novella. It was an interesting experience to take part in. I recommend this book for quick reads, reading through at one go, for family dynamics. Well worth the read.

Fierce by Hannah Holborn is a diverse and beautiful collection of short stories and a novella about damaged, imperfect individuals facing various difficult situations. The stories covered a wide spectrum of themes such as love, loss, death, loneliness, fear, isolation, madness, beauty, sadness, disability, and imperfection. Ultimately, the strongest message I took away from this book was acceptance, whether of yourself, your situation, or others. Fierce seems to be one of those rare and special books that can touch any number of people in a different way though.

The characters in Fierce were all vivid, unique, and contrasting. There was something so genuinely human and likeable about almost all of the characters despite, or often because of, their flaws that I found myself wondering what happened next in their lives. Many of the short stories felt like the beginning of a more complex journey.

Hannah Holborn had a way of using the location of the stories as a potent element of the plot. She used the setting to give each story an effective ambience. One common setting for the stories in Fierce is the Yukon. I found this very interesting because the Yukon is not a place that I have much knowledge about, and I had never read anything set there before. I felt an added connection with this book because a few of the stories were set in, or mentioned, cities in the Vancouver are that are very near or familiar to me.

Fierce is an exceedingly well written novel that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a book with a lot of deeper meanings, hidden emotions, and unexpected events. I'm looking forward to what this author has to offer in future novels.