Hall
of Small Mammals: Stories
Thomas
Pierce
Having
heard that this collection featured a story that includes a
resurrected mammoth as a protagonist, I was immediately sold on the
expectation of a collection of science fiction-tinged tales with a
literary sensibility. Though, alas, Pierce's fantastical inclinations
are largely limited to the book's first two stories, Hall
of Small Mammals does offer a
satisfying lineup of stories exploring human connection and isolation
in their many forms. Intentionally or by accident, Pierce has pieced
together a collection with common questions and common themes at its
core. Each of the book's stories traffics heavily in metaphor, often
with similes to spare. While this layered sense of meaning usually
contributes to a sense of depth, there are a few stories that feel a
bit empty, and several seem to be making the same point in much the
same manner. Pierce sometimes offers too little plot to sustain his
thematic ideas ("Why We Ate Mud", "Saint Possy"),
which is a shame seeing as more meandering stories like "Grasshopper
Kings," "Felix Not Arriving," and "Hot Air
Balloon Ride for One" are some of the collection's most moving.
These stories may require additional reflection to fully appreciate,
but they both invite and reward the effort. Most of the collection
consists of these sparse stories, well-executed for the most part but
largely forgettable after the moment has passed.
And
then there's "Videos of People Falling Down," a series of
loosely connected vignettes joined by the title's promise and, for my
money at least, the collection's runaway success and easily its best
story. Despite the possible kitsch implied by the premise, Pierce
takes his characters and their various predicaments absolutely
seriously (but not without a hint of humor), constructing a story
that somehow finds love, loss, despair, and hope in the act of
falling. Pierce manages to convey the humanity of his subjects,
exploring not only what it is that made them fall- and the aftermath
that these videos often forget to mention- but also what it is that
draws us to their plights. The story is a large gamble that pays off
big, and it is perhaps unsurprising that the author's forays into the
fantastic, tentative as they are, are the collection's strongest
offerings. The strangely heartbreaking "Shirley Temple Three"
effectively uses extinction as a metaphor for an empty nester's
loneliness, and a profound story about emotional connection emerges
from "The Real Alan Gass" despite its clumsy, half-imagined
version of the Theory of Everything.
"More
Soon" is a surprisingly effective story that uses the slightest
touch of science fiction- in the shape of an unexplainable, highly
contagious, yet ultimately contained virus- to explore the ways in
which we find, or don't find, closure after the deaths of those who
are, for one reason or another, important to us. Unlike some of the
collection's other stories, this one grabbed me immediately, its
hints of humor massaging its harsh truths, much as in life. Thomas
Pierce may leave a bit to be desired in some of his fiction, and the
collection certainly has moments that feel overwrought, over-thought,
and understated, moments of anticipation and potential that aren't
quite realized. Yet Hall of Small Mammals
is, by and large, a satisfying group of stories that hint at ways of
understanding, or at least considering, some of the larger truths of
our existence.
Grade:
B+
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