shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.

Recent Reviews

Salon.com

New Republic

Esquire

  • Envy by Kathryn Harrison

Atlantic Monthly

Christian Science Monitor

Times Literary Supplement

Powells.com


15 Flavors to Choose From

Review-a-Day
Powells.com
Saturday, July 23rd, 2005


Big Cats: Stories

by Holiday Reinhorn

A review by Georgie Lewis

Holiday Reinhorn's stories will invariably draw comparisons to assorted masters of the short story form. She has a darkness reminiscent of Mary Gaitskill and a flawless ability to inhabit the minds of the suburban disenfranchised that reminds one of Raymond Carver. However, comparisons don't do this work justice because there is nothing derivative here. Hers is a voice that is fresh, filled with wit, often raw, and wholly her own.

There is such energy here -- at times the stories crackle with electricity -- and she creates a range of atmospheres from malevolent to kinky, sullen to subversive. Yet the characters are so fully fleshed out and unique that compassion is inevitable.

Interestingly enough, the stories often take place in an institutional setting: a psychiatric hospital, a bank, a zoo. The titular story is a dynamic piece about that curious blend of fierce love and rivalry that is practically a rite-of-passage for adolescent girls. With the pent-up rage of teenage hormones and the back drop of the lion's cage at the zoo, the two girls eventually explode. A garish cat-fight results, fueled by class and sex, and the fury of youth.

With older characters the motivations are more disguised. Or even corrupt. "Fuck You" is an extraordinary story; its perusal of exploitation is creepily humorous. A pregnant woman's boredom leads to a teasing and provocative interaction with a teenage little-leaguer. Controlling the boy and the situation seems to be one of her motivations -- the others are more perverse.

The story "Good to Hear You" has a melancholic longing to it, achieved by a cunning construction. A daughter describes her absent father's day with a detailed certainty that convinces us of her need to dwell, dissect his day, with the obsessive yearning of the neglected. The last sentence, however, changes everything. Like many of Reinhorn's stories, the structure is brilliantly effective.

Occasionally I'm slightly uncomfortable with the way Reinhorn ends her stories, a stylistic fastidiousness for dramatic closure that reminds me she is a product of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Whilst many graduates of Iowa are known for their beautiful prose, I've often perceived, in the work that I have read, something a little too studied or mannered in structure. But on the whole Reinhorn's work doesn't read this way. It isn't indicative of this school and its trademark style, although I will concede I experienced a slight affectation at the close of a couple of these stories. Nonetheless, this is a quibble that I had to reach for, frankly, in an attempt to quell my gushing.

Suffice it to say, this is a magnificent collection of stories from an original author indeed.



 
Your Price $2.88
(Used, Trade Paper)

Enter your email address below and seven days a week a new review will arrive in your mail.

Email address:

Click here to read about Powells.com's privacy policy.

More reviews from Powells.com

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.