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lucian_childs's review against another edition
5.0
One way to tell a story is at a distance—third person, past tense, for example. That remove sounds authorial and gives the narration the ability to observe, to opine. But in most of the stories in this collection, Kystyn Dunnion is, like, screw that shit! I’m writing about real people, crawling up inside their brains to show, not just a story, but a particular, and often peculiar, worldview.
In some ways, the book reads like a report from the street. You have your teenaged gay drug-addicted hustlers, your undergraduate budding eco-terrorists, a person living with mental illness whose possession by demonic shoes leads to a fatal encounter and the drugged-out entourage of mourners after. They talk like they fucking walk. You got a problem with that, go read Henry James!
For all my retreats into narrative distance, I love voice in fiction. In my novella-in-progress I have girls—an eight and a twelve year old—teenage boys, all of them talking smack in the slang of the period. So, you’d be right to guess, that I love “Stoop City.”
I admit, it can sometimes be like Chinese water torture, all this crazy and/or drug-addled patter, but it feels fresh. And, under all the characters’ stylistic bravado, you feel their beating hearts. Hoofy, the young, gay street kid in “Fits Ritual,” who runs a scam with the love of his life, a boy who is as transactional as he is beautiful. Later, the nurse in “Four Letter Word for ‘Loose’” who tries to keep Hoofy from overdosing. Or in the devastatingly beautiful “Tracker and Flow,” the couple afflicted by another sort of possession, one reflective of their disintegrating relationship.
Kristyn Dunnion, is a Toronto-based performance artist and many of these pieces have the kind of verbal bravura you find in performance art or slam. Through voice, Dunnion takes you into worlds strange, frightening and beautiful. I, for one, am very happy to have gone along for the ride. { Cross-posted at my website. }
View all my reviews
In some ways, the book reads like a report from the street. You have your teenaged gay drug-addicted hustlers, your undergraduate budding eco-terrorists, a person living with mental illness whose possession by demonic shoes leads to a fatal encounter and the drugged-out entourage of mourners after. They talk like they fucking walk. You got a problem with that, go read Henry James!
For all my retreats into narrative distance, I love voice in fiction. In my novella-in-progress I have girls—an eight and a twelve year old—teenage boys, all of them talking smack in the slang of the period. So, you’d be right to guess, that I love “Stoop City.”
I admit, it can sometimes be like Chinese water torture, all this crazy and/or drug-addled patter, but it feels fresh. And, under all the characters’ stylistic bravado, you feel their beating hearts. Hoofy, the young, gay street kid in “Fits Ritual,” who runs a scam with the love of his life, a boy who is as transactional as he is beautiful. Later, the nurse in “Four Letter Word for ‘Loose’” who tries to keep Hoofy from overdosing. Or in the devastatingly beautiful “Tracker and Flow,” the couple afflicted by another sort of possession, one reflective of their disintegrating relationship.
Kristyn Dunnion, is a Toronto-based performance artist and many of these pieces have the kind of verbal bravura you find in performance art or slam. Through voice, Dunnion takes you into worlds strange, frightening and beautiful. I, for one, am very happy to have gone along for the ride. { Cross-posted at my website. }
View all my reviews
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition
4.0
I'd forgotten how much I liked Kristyn Dunnion's writing. This is a great collection of short stories, mostly realist but a few with a speculative edge. All the characters are outcasts or misfits of some sort. A young homeless guy whose boyfriend disappears after their latest con. A rockabilly butch nurse whose longterm partner has left her. A street sex worker sharing the tricks of her trade. An elderly woman living with schizophrenia. Amazing grasp of character and punchy, visceral writing. It's incredible to see the range of different characters Dunnion disappears into, especially in the span of a short story.
readingrainbot's review
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
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