Clive Holden's Fury – Fictions & Films, Reviewed

Toronto Globe and Mail:

'SHARP, ANGRY AND JAZZY

'Clive Holden's first book is a collection of work in various forms: There's a four-part novella, five short fictions and two transcripts of experimental films. As well, there are photographs, flip-book animations and variegated typefaces, should you tire of reading.

'Which is not to say the text needs all this graphic support. Far from it. Holden's lyric prose is quite strong enough to stand by itself. The main work, the novella, uses three narrative viewpoints: an Irish immigrant, his lost daughter and her Québécois lover. It's a smart piece, by far the most cohesive in the book, managing to maintain an evocative tension through its 90 pages.

'The shorts are very short, some only a page or two each, leaning more toward poetry than prose. They're like popcorn: As soon as you finish one, you have to start the next. In this compulsive manner, the book rattles by.

'The final piece, the "filmpoem" Hitler!, is not only short, but there are fewer lines to the page, images are introduced to the text and the point size of the type keeps changing. Once it's read, you can look at the pictures and flip the animations until you dip into it again. Fun stuff.

'Holden's subject matter, however, is a harsh Canadian roadscape, merging country and city. He focuses on small things: the betraying incident, the stray thought or image, rather than the larger dramas. A stolen bicycle reveals guilt over a lost brother. A fishing line becomes a metaphor for domestic upheaval. Ultimately, his stories are about failure. Not one of his characters succeeds. The collection is tale after tale of unrelenting loss.

'In lesser hands, this could be bleak. But thankfully, Holden's jazzy, poetic style allows his stories to transcend the stagnant fates of his protagonists, and he gives us something that approaches philosophic tolerance.

'Holden's characters are all loners: transients, migrant workers, bus-drivers, labourers, drunks. And almost all male. His one female character, the lost daughter in the novella, is a news anchor, and stands out like a clean thumb. Funnily enough, she ends up donning male garments and wandering through Montreal in drag.

'The topics, too, are all masculine: fathers and sons, brothers and motorbikes, machine shops, drinking, driving, boating, fishing . . . all served up with a sharp-eyed aggression and a peculiarly Canadian laissez-faire.

'Take it or leave it, there's a cruel, laconic style at work here.

'Halfway through the book, the vignettes start to merge, differing voices and points of view notwithstanding; broken homes and abandoned lives; gentle portraits and scathing monologues. But one has to admire the fury of the title, evident throughout the book. Images sear into our imaginations. We get lost in the grandeur of Canadian landscapes: the northern lights, the mountains, the lakes. Against this backdrop of nature, the characters become obsessed with their automobiles, motels, bars, girlfriends and concrete-neon existences. Every so often, one of them will stop, look up and notice his larger surroundings.

'It's in these moments of recognition that we, too, become aware of something greater.'

Montreal Review of Books:

'In a narrative style reminiscent of Robert Altman's film 'Short Cuts' [based on the writings of Raymond Carver], 'Fury' tells the story of an Irish immigrant to Canada, the daughter he's never met, and her terrorist lover--three people whose lives intertwine in obvious and sometimes mysterious ways.

'Holden's male protagonists are marked by physical strength from years of manual labour, emotional powerlessness, and inarticulate anger. The main female character has the opposite problem--she has to work to constrain her uncontrollable emotions. The metaphor of power runs throughout the novella, shaping interactions between characters and culminating in a powerplant explosion which leaves Montreal in a city wide blackout.

'Fury is at times gripping and has moments of meaningful honesty.

'Holden has a talent for describing harsh circumstances and hard men ... emotionally raw and intense.'