Journey Prize Stories 2014

BOOK REVIEW FOR ENGL. 230

Sealskin – Tyler Keevil (Spoiler Alert) “Sealskin” is one of the stories that stand out to me the most so far from this collection. Based on a man named Alex, who struggles with an external conflict with one of his co-workers, it parallels with his internal struggle with his dislike and disconnect from the job itself. He develops a relationship with one of the local seals that swim in the water surrounding his workplace, and in doing so evokes a terrible anger from that of his beloved co-worker (sarcasm intended).

The plot in and around itself is an interesting idea, but is hindered by too much jargon and description before the climax. Altogether the theme and plot revolve around Alex and his enemy co-worker, but again, seemingly falls flat with an unrealistic and cheesy ending.

The best part, and why I think this story stands out to me, is the scene where Alex is standing on the wharf, helplessly looking at his seal friend who was brutally killed. Alex and the seal have such an intimate friendship considering their conditions, and the description that Keevil provides puts a horrifically sad picture in my head of what the seal looked like, and ultimately made me tear up while reading it.

“He could tell by the tubular shape that it was a seal, his seal, but at first he didn’t know what they had done to her; she was no longer grey and speckled by the sea but bright crimson as if they’d dipped her in red paint and made a piñata out of her” (112).

As an animal lover, I was hit immediately with a wave of sadness that I truly couldn’t bear while I was reading it. As for the literary characteristics of the story itself, I think Keevil could have developed the ending in such a way that provided the satisfaction that Alex got an effective revenge on his co-worker, rather than a cheesy “sailing away into the distance” cinematic-type ending. Juvenile – Clea Young “Juvenile” is a disheartening story told from two different points of view. One by Mia, a girl who is working to reinvent herself by getting over her loss of self-respect and self-worth, and Pete, a pretentious asshole who takes advantage of said insecurities. Their relationship from high school is brought to the surface when they coincidentally—and literally—bump into each other on a ferry ride. You see pitiful reflections from Mia about how Pete treated her, and you see Pete still trying to justify why he was so awful in the first place. All you can do is feel sorry for her and hope that one day she acknowledges her self-worth and respects herself. One of the most depressing lines is:

"It must have had something to do with the timing, their emotional immaturity when they dated. Even Pete’s toes had tasted teenaged. Fungal. They were stubby and sprouted black hairs. He wriggled them forcibly inside her mouth, one slicing her palate with his big toenail" (165).

We do, however, see a moment of triumph and a major character shift in Mia, when she turns down what Pete sees as his version of “making things right”. As a big fan of satisfying endings such as these, the simplicity of Mia pretending she doesn’t know Pete when he “comes to the rescue,” is a big enough “eff you,” all in itself without further explaining Mia’s need to leave Pete in the dust. Young is effective in bringing a full circle into the development and character growth for Mia, and a much-needed reality check for Pete. Though I am doing my very best to refrain from checking the winners of this year’s Journey Prize, so far this is the story I hope will win. Four Minutes – Andrew MacDonald We all have had that dreaded “birds and the bees” talk. Whether you’re the one doing the informing, or receiving the lesson, it’s never fails to be anything but awkward. “Four Minutes” centres around a brother, Scott, and his twin sister, Zelda, and their relationship. MacDonald parallels a few different relationships and weaves them in and out of each other to create a strong, underlying theme in patience and acceptance. Zelda has a disability; Scott does not. Scott has taken it upon himself to teach Zelda the tricks of the trade when it comes to having sex. Zelda and her boyfriend Marxy, who also has a disability, decide that it’s their time to “do the deed,” and Scott, along with Marxy’s mother are forced to be supportive. MacDonald makes it seem as though the story is about the relationship with Scott and Zelda, but in reality, one of the main conflicts lies between Scott and his internal struggle in dealing with his recent breakup from his girlfriend. As we see at the end of the story, he takes out his frustration and confusion with everything in a way that proves to be damaging to Zelda in more ways than one.

“Something has gone wrong. Brothers do things for their sisters. They take action when action is required. Should a bullet whistle through the air, on a trajectory heading for the sister’s forehead, brothers must react in such a way as to negate the bullet. They must discover gaps in the theory of relativity. They must thwart Newton’s laws. There is a theory that once every eleven billion times you drop a pencil, the pencil will rise instead of fall” (139).

Though Scott immediately realizes that what he has done is wrong, his mind is also racing with thoughts that are trying to justify what he had done in the first place. The struggle of dealing with accepting his sister for who and what she is—sex-talk and all—combined with his struggle to make sense of his recent breakup has completely, for lack of better words, sent Scott over the edge. Probabilities – Rosaria Campbell This story takes a subject that is very much a relevant discussion topic and takes you to a very personal and conflicting side of it. The protagonist, Jeff, is gay and has HIV/AIDS, though neither of them are outright stated in the piece, which I think was a strong decision by Campbell in portraying how taboo of a subject homosexuality is to this day. The story is told from the viewpoint of Jeff’s sister, which is where I think Campbell went wrong. To make it an effective relationship, one must develop the protagonist’s character as well as that of the person telling the story. We are, however, never really exposed to the narrator’s personality except for a couple lines stating that she has a husband and from her perspective on her brother. This makes it seem as though she has an obsession with Jeff, where he is constantly on her mind, taking over her thought process almost 24/7. Though the conflict itself lies in Jeff and his struggle with past and present relationships, there is also one that comes from the narrator, and why she is so consumed with Jeff’s hardships. Alas, another Journey Prize Stories is under wraps, and though I must admit I liked the 2013 issue better, this anthology proved to be a close runner-up. Some of my favourites include "How to Tell if Your Frog is Dead," and "Juvenile."