Light Lifting [Paperback]

The world that Alexander MacLeod's protagonists inhabit is not an easygoing or a comfortable one, it is - a realistic one. Set in different urban milieus, many of his characters are young, struggling to get ahead in life. Some confront personal adversity, hoping for companionship or friendship, others attempt to find solace and even redemption. With his debut story collection MacLeod exhibits an exquisite writing talent that succeeds in capturing, with precision and depth, both the inner workings of the individual's psyche and their social and physical circumstances. The back cover of the book describes the author - very aptly I find - as a writer of "ferocious physicality".

The majority of the seven stories are written in first person voices, drawing the reader intimately into each of the narrators' points of view on concrete experiences in their lives. In 'Miracle Mile', Michael, while preparing for an important international running meet, reflects back on his long friendship with his closest competitor. As children they already raced together, and sometimes, at night, they risked their lives by running through a cross-border train tunnel beneath the Detroit river. One dangerous run is so vividly depicted, that I felt myself holding my breath until I knew that the kids were both safely on the other side. In this and other stories the author describes in detail the material details that underpin any of his protagonists' physical activities: be it running, swimming, holing bricks, or manoeuvring a bicycle on the icy roads in winter.

While most central characters are young men and only very few women hold an important place in a story, the story of Stace in 'Adult Beginner I' stands out. We meet her when she stands high above the ground on a ledge, reluctant to follow the urging by her gang of friends to jump - as a dare - from a hotel's roof straight down into the Detroit river. It is a dark night and only a few lights can guide the direction of her fall into the water... a water that seems anything but inviting. Her deep-seated fear has a complex history that is told in flashbacks, going back to her first exposure, as a child, to the Atlantic Ocean and a wave that threatened her. MacLeod compellingly evokes Stace's memory: "The wall of water came into her vision, looming over her mother's shoulder like an old-style gangster thug sifting out of the crowd in a grey trench coat with a brim of his fedora pulled low down. He was so thick and so wide, he blocked out the sky. He shoved her mother forward headfirst into the sand before grabbing the girl and carrying her off in the opposite direction."

For me, Stace's challenge is one of the most affecting and richly developed stories in the collection. 'The Loop' is another remarkable story. The teenager Allan rides his bicycle to deliver medications and other drugstore supplies for old-fashioned pharmacist, Mr Musgrave. Over a period of three years, he gets to know a diverse group of customers - from nice, half-blind old Mrs McKay, to eighty-nine year old Mrs. Hume, to huge, spooky (youngish) Barney. His description of his interaction with his customers is meticulous and very perceptive. He knows that his customers' requests go beyond what a teenager should be asked and he learns more about their mental or other health conditions than he wants to be dealing with. He nevertheless experiences empathy, and in some cases affection, for his 'clients'. And one day, he surprises himself by his ability for compassion despite his reserve and even disgust. "The Loop" and 'Adult Beginner I' turned into my favourites in this collection. Their central characters illustrate a gentler touch and stand in contrast to the somewhat raw and dark emotions and physical aggressions that lie beneath many of the other stories. Overall, I find myself torn between my attraction to the author's excellent and precise writing and my limited curiosity as regards most of the topics he expands on and the characters who inhabit them. Other readers may well find others or all of the stories captivating.

Canadian author Alexander MacLeod was a 2010 Giller Prize finalist with this collection that also has been named "Book of the Year" by other institutions in Canada. He is the son of award winning Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod, who won the International Foreign Fiction Prize (IMPAC) in 1999 for his novel "No Great Mischief". [Friederike Knabe]

In these seven stories by Canadian author Alexander MacLeod, we meet for the most part people in ordinary lives: young parents, bricklayers, swimming-pool lifeguards, a drugstore delivery boy, an auto worker. The only really extraordinary ones are the principal characters in the opening story, "Miracle Mile," two middle-distance runners with a chance at making the Olympic team. MacLeod has an amazing ability to present their lives with the utmost intensity. Sometimes he does this with intense self-absorption, sometimes by evoking the jargon of the sport or trade, sometimes unleashing a blizzard of short phrases, as this harassed father driving his wife and baby on a Christmas visit: "Everybody on their way. Express and collector. Keep your distance. A two-car-length minimum. Exit for the 404. Exit for the 407. Don't get trapped by the QEW. Don't go to Hamilton. My right blinker. My right blinker again. The polite wave. Adjust to the pace. Small openings where someone will let you in. Tight margins. Sweat on the steering wheel."

This comes from the second story, "Wonder About Parents," a magnificent evocation of life with a young baby, interwoven with flashbacks of meeting and courtship, and a history of the human head louse. There is very little story as such, only a series of minor crises and perhaps less minor ones, which may or may not be overcome. The open-endedness is characteristic of all these stories, which are not so much resolved as set in motion, often by some act of unexpected violence, leaving the reader to do the work. In this story, for instance, we may not know how things will work out with the baby, but we do end up very close to the parents, with the feeling that they will get through it, whatever happens. My favorite of the stories, "Adult Beginners I," about a group of off-duty lifeguards diving off a high building into the Detroit River, had me with my heart in my mouth, expecting one ending and then another and another, being surprised each time but also rewarded by further insight into the life of the young female protagonist.

None of the stories, though, is entirely happy. Most flirt with tragedy, violence, or despair. But none of them is entirely sad either. MacLeod has a fine ability to balance sorrow with compassion, and disaster with self-discovery. Even those stories that appear to end badly reward the reader with a sense of uplift and understanding. This is unpretentious writing about unpretentious people, but writing nonetheless of a high order.

One of the best short story collections I have ever read - and I read a lot. Every story held my interest until the very end - and the endings all were a surprise - I really enjoyed every minute I spent reading this book.