Crisp confronts the unspeakable parts of memory, meditating on characters caught in isolation and struggling to make sense of grief, disappointment, and the occasional dinner party gone wrong. The characters in Crisp’s stories don’t always make sound decisions: a grieving widow pursues a priest, an unhappy wife whittles her husband to bits, and a nostalgic man has a one-night stand with a whale trainer. Ranging from the mystical to the eccentric, Gray masterfully uncovers human reactions to loneliness and unrest through tales about relationships, secrets, and a longing to connect.
Crisp (Nunatak First Fiction)
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About the Author
R.W. Gray was born and raised on the northwest coast of BC, and received a PhD in Poetry and Psychoanalysis from the University of Alberta in 2003. He is the author of two serialized novels in Xtra West magazine (Waterboys and Tide Pool Sketches) and has published poetry in various journals and anthologies, including Arc, Grain, Event, and dANDelion. He has also had ten short screenplays produced, including Alice & Huck and Blink. He currently teaches Film at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Crisp is his first book.
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By spondoolix
Format:Paperback
The stories of RW Gray's Crisp are both delicately and precisely written with a melancholy undertone that leaves the reader feeling nostalgic for a world of lost love and childhood memories. Yet it is the writing itself that beguiles -- almost every sentence opens out into an origami of subtle phrasing and beautifully rendered metaphor. There is much humous too in the comic circumstances of the human condition. Crisp is a first-rate collection from this talented, assured writer.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Sobsister
Format:Paperback
*Crisp* is one of the most startling, witty, and insightful collections of short stories I have read in a long time. Gray has a fresh, darkly humorous way of looking at a crazy world; his insights are deeply empathetic at the same time that they are hilarious! The title story installs magic realism (which we normally associate with Latin America) on the west coast of Canada. Nothing short of brilliant!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By M. Demers
Format:Paperback
Crisp is the first collection of Gray's short stories that I've read, and I have to say he's a very talented wordsmith. Gray possesses an excellent command of language: his interesting choice of words, surprising metaphors, and style were a constant treat. Much of his prose is very poetic, reminding me of my favourite writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Gray also reminds me of another writer, Kafka, when Gray strays into the fantastical as he does in the title story. In fact, in my opinion this is where Gray is at his strongest: the title story is just so wonderfully bizarre, as is 'Wabi Sabi.' These stories are also Kafkaesque in their bleak outlook, but the fantasy element is just so delicious that you forget how bleak the story is. And both are worth the price of admission alone.
Gray doesn't maintain this approach throughout the collection, which is unfortunate because I so wanted more of that. And while I still enjoyed many of the 'slice of life' vignettes, one or two of them failed to capture my imagination. But throughout the collection is still that wonderful command of language, that interesting turn of phrase, and that alone is worth taking a look at this writer.
Update: just wanted to add that the book has been nominated for the 2010 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, presented by the Writers' Union of Canada. Congrats to Gray.
Gray doesn't maintain this approach throughout the collection, which is unfortunate because I so wanted more of that. And while I still enjoyed many of the 'slice of life' vignettes, one or two of them failed to capture my imagination. But throughout the collection is still that wonderful command of language, that interesting turn of phrase, and that alone is worth taking a look at this writer.
Update: just wanted to add that the book has been nominated for the 2010 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, presented by the Writers' Union of Canada. Congrats to Gray.
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