Review: 'Crosscurrents' a strong debut by Gerry Wilson
A writer’s debut must sing, must promise in a way that makes readers check in on the author every so often to see if that next book has been released. With "Crosscurrents and Other Stories" (Press 53), Gerry Wilson makes said promise in the first story, following it with 10 more gems that both fulfill that promise and signal more good to come.
Wilson delivers a refreshing collection of the contemporary South. While some of these stories contain the sort of literary grit expected from Southern writers, Wilson proves her range outstrips that of many writing in the region. These are stories about the poor and the well-off, about recklessness and loss, about infidelity and childlessness, told in crisp, clear prose and often with formal experimentation.
The first story, “Mating,” follows Gail, whose boyfriend Cleary owns an animal park failing as rapidly as their relationship. In this piece, Wilson masterfully demonstrates how to avoid sentimentality when including animals in fiction. Gail’s feline companion, a panther named Garcia, becomes a source of tension when Cleary decides they must sell the panther to keep the park running, a decision leading to the story’s haunting, triumphal end.
Readers partial to the warmth of "Marley and Me" need look elsewhere. Wilson’s use of animals keeps to the fine, artful drama found in collections like Brad Watson’s "Last Days of the Dog-Men" and Maile Meloy’s "Half in Love," collections in which the animals stir original trouble and build character. Wilson even gives us a cat’s perspective in “The Taste of Salt” without a single note of the trite or cliché. The cat’s viewpoint offers a most poetic passage, proving Wilson’s deep interest in every living thing that stirs in her fiction.
In stories “Pieces” and “From This Distance,” Wilson experiments with narrative form, successfully enhancing each story’s content. “Pieces,” aptly titled, refers not only to the story’s subject matter but also to its fragmented telling from several perspectives. The story depicts, in short sequences, the characters grieving the loss of loved one, Len, to drowning.
The story’s form, while not confusing in the slightest, allows the reader to experience the characters’ disorientation. Scenes shift from present to past and back again, creating the sense of bafflement each character endures in their loss. The children’s perspectives are, thankfully, as compelling as that of the adults.
As with her animals, Wilson knows how to make even children and adolescents complex and conflicted. “Sparrow, Sparrow,” the shortest piece in the collection, is easily one of the most powerful. In it, a teenaged girl tells the story of her beloved, reckless sister Charlene, a talented singer with crippling stage fright. Its close breaks the heart. A seven-page haymaker.
“From This Distance” takes the sort of formal risks that flop with a lesser writer, giving the reader two perspectives, the second one with an interesting turn. Like “Pieces,” the story explores loss, in this case of a couple’s newborn. Iris and Peter differ in their ways of healing, drawing the reader in with their humanity and sincere attempts to carry on.
This piece is particularly striking in its sensory detail: “Carved out of red clay and left unfinished, the cellar stays cool and damp even in the summer. Moisture collects on the walls like beads of sweat. Iris likes this place that smells like corn fields after days of rain when the corn has begun to mildew in its husks and go to ruin.”
Here are 11 worlds worth dwelling in from an exciting writer sure to continue pleasing.
Ellis Purdie is a graduate of The Center for Writers at The University of Southern Mississippi. He lives in Petal.