Rebecca Lee's six short first-person narratives are not necessarily interconnected--each story stands on its own without overlapping characters--but they each traverse the same familiar grounds. Academia--from campuses to classrooms to student retreats and even literati dinners--factors heavily in each of these tales. It's not surprising that, given the author is a professor of creative writing, she would write about the world most familiar to her.
It is precisely in this familiar territory that Rebecca Lee most shines. In the first story, "Bobcat" (by far my favourite), the author describes with delicious detail the interactions of a group of writers, editors and lawyers making their way through an evening of food and wine while trying to suss out the truth behind one writer's supposed memoir of a bobcat attack. The dialogue feels authentic and the characters are sufficiently realized while still leaving some space for the reader to fill in the blanks. Not much space, perhaps, but some.
If I had one criticism it's that some of the other stories aren't given as much breathing room.
The narrator--who could be the same person in each story if there didn't appear to be a gender switch in the last one, so identical is the tone and style in all six stories--is very self-reflexive, sometimes painfully so. The narrator is aware of her own motives, the motives of others, her own flaws, the consequences of her actions and the effects of the actions of others. She is an academic, through and through, and as such the reader is left little to interpret.
I'll be excited to read Rebecca Lee in the future. Bobcat and Other Stories certainly gave me enough for me to be interested in her talent and her voice. I only hope that in the future Rebecca Lee may allow herself to step back from her characters, let them be oblivious sometimes, let them be irrational or emotional, and trust that her readers will fill in the space left behind.
It is precisely in this familiar territory that Rebecca Lee most shines. In the first story, "Bobcat" (by far my favourite), the author describes with delicious detail the interactions of a group of writers, editors and lawyers making their way through an evening of food and wine while trying to suss out the truth behind one writer's supposed memoir of a bobcat attack. The dialogue feels authentic and the characters are sufficiently realized while still leaving some space for the reader to fill in the blanks. Not much space, perhaps, but some.
If I had one criticism it's that some of the other stories aren't given as much breathing room.
The narrator--who could be the same person in each story if there didn't appear to be a gender switch in the last one, so identical is the tone and style in all six stories--is very self-reflexive, sometimes painfully so. The narrator is aware of her own motives, the motives of others, her own flaws, the consequences of her actions and the effects of the actions of others. She is an academic, through and through, and as such the reader is left little to interpret.
I'll be excited to read Rebecca Lee in the future. Bobcat and Other Stories certainly gave me enough for me to be interested in her talent and her voice. I only hope that in the future Rebecca Lee may allow herself to step back from her characters, let them be oblivious sometimes, let them be irrational or emotional, and trust that her readers will fill in the space left behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Everyone is welcome to add a comment. Feel free to include a link to your own review or blog (but no spam links please).