Reviewed by Lauren Siddall
Double Dutch marks Victoria writer Laura Trunkey’s debut collection of short stories. Her fiction and non-fiction pieces have been published by journals across Canada, as well as having collected two honourable mentions at the National Magazine Awards. Trunkey also authored the children’s novel The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, making her transition into literary fiction all the more impressive.
The nine stories in Double Dutch depict nine very diverse scenarios, all marked by an extremely rich cast of characters with unique voices. Trunkey easily switches between voices, sometimes invoking more than one speaker per story, and ranging from an omniscient narrator, to an elephant, to air particles. Though the task seems daunting, Trunkey is more than up to the challenge and makes it feel nearly effortless.
Her collection of stories borders on the fantastical, always combining reality with a degree of the imaginary. The liminal nature of Trunkey’s stories creates a space for her to play with complicated, pressing issues that are otherwise taboo.
In “Night Terror,” the first story in the collection, a single mother is convinced her toddler is the reincarnation of a terrorist, because the child mumbles Arabic in his sleep. Here, Trunkey is exploring and deconstructing a harmful Orientalist dialogue that has become inherent in Western discussions of the Middle East – particularly in the wake of 9/11. The child, upon whom the mother projects her feelings of hostility toward Islamic culture, represents the way in which those practising Islam are marginalized and even demonized by those who know nothing about the religion apart from the radical versions depicted on the nightly news. The two-year-old child, of course, ends up being harmless, forcing the reader to re-examine the treatment of ostracized Islamic and Arabic individuals.
In “Ursus Arctos Horribilis,” “Electrocuting the Elephant,” “On Crowsnest Mountain” and “The Windspir Sisters’ Home for the Dying,” Trunkey explores in different ways the idea of death and mortality, while touching on what it means to mourn. In “Ursus Arctos Horribilis” and “On Crowsnest Mountain,” she deconstructs the psyches of mourning individuals. The speaker in “Ursus Arctos Horribilis” believes his wife, who is in intensive care after being attacked by a bear, is actually inhabited by the spirit of the very bear that attacked her. His narrative is a story of mourning someone he believes has passed but is not truly gone. This is also the case with “On Crownest Mountain,” which follows a mother and father climbing up the mountain where their son went missing. The father, clearly the more pragmatic of the two, believes their son is dead and thinks their mission is useless. The mother, on the other hand, believes she will find her son, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The story moves away from the heartbreaking narrative when Trunkey takes a fantastical turn and gives a voice to nature – the force that has apparently taken the life of their son. Readers are given an opportunity, after an extended look into the inner workings of mourning, to see the external characteristics of the act.
“Electrocuting the Elephant” and “The Windspir Sisters’ Home for the Dying” are both centred on the act of dying, the former told from the perspective of an elephant named Topsy, who is being electrocuted on Coney Island by Thomas Edison, while the latter follows four sisters who can see and communicate with their two sisters who have died. Both stories attempt a depiction of life’s final moments, which, although difficult to imagine, Trunkey brilliantly describes.
The most compelling story of the collection is “Hands Like Birds,” which chronicles a deaf twelve-year-old girl’s transition into blindness. Along with her father and a caretaker, she travels to Niagara Falls, which, they believe will be the last thing, aside from their hometown, that the girl will ever see. Here, Trunkey masterfully describes the falls and fireworks in splinters, creating a kaleidoscope-like image of the landmark to maintain the fantastical theme permeating all her stories. The tale, while heartbreaking, brings to question what perception is and highlights the subjective way each person perceives the world.
The title story is about Ronald Reagan’s body double, who falls in love with Nancy Reagan, Ronald’s wife. The body double, known as Double Dutch, looks so similar to Reagan that sometimes even Reagan’s wife mistakes the two. The story is told retrospectively by the body double visiting Reagan in his old, ailing age, knowing this will be the last time they see each other. Interestingly, “Double Dutch” does not appear first in the collection, despite being the title story. Once the story is read, however, it becomes clear why Trunkey has chosen to use this title for the collection. The story is about two men who are virtually identical, except one is real and the other is not. Trunkey plays with this sort of duality throughout each story in the text: reality is always paired with an anti-reality of sorts.
Trunkey’s collection of stories is similar to Miranda Hill’s 2012 collection of short fiction, Sleeping Funny. Hill, too, roots her writing in the fantastic elements of reality to create a “funny” space to explore. Both Canadian authors offer a debut collection of stories with an extremely mature, refined voice, unifying their stories by weaving common themes throughout.
Anansi/Astoria | 280 pages | $19.95 | paper | ISBN# 9781770898776
‘Double Dutch’ by Laura Trunkey
Book Reviews
Double Dutch marks Victoria writer Laura Trunkey’s debut collection of short stories. Her fiction and non-fiction pieces have been published by journals across Canada, as well as having collected two honourable mentions at the National Magazine Awards. Trunkey also authored the children’s novel The Incredibly Ordinary Danny Chandelier, making her transition into literary fiction all the more impressive.
The nine stories in Double Dutch depict nine very diverse scenarios, all marked by an extremely rich cast of characters with unique voices. Trunkey easily switches between voices, sometimes invoking more than one speaker per story, and ranging from an omniscient narrator, to an elephant, to air particles. Though the task seems daunting, Trunkey is more than up to the challenge and makes it feel nearly effortless.
Her collection of stories borders on the fantastical, always combining reality with a degree of the imaginary. The liminal nature of Trunkey’s stories creates a space for her to play with complicated, pressing issues that are otherwise taboo.
In “Night Terror,” the first story in the collection, a single mother is convinced her toddler is the reincarnation of a terrorist, because the child mumbles Arabic in his sleep. Here, Trunkey is exploring and deconstructing a harmful Orientalist dialogue that has become inherent in Western discussions of the Middle East – particularly in the wake of 9/11. The child, upon whom the mother projects her feelings of hostility toward Islamic culture, represents the way in which those practising Islam are marginalized and even demonized by those who know nothing about the religion apart from the radical versions depicted on the nightly news. The two-year-old child, of course, ends up being harmless, forcing the reader to re-examine the treatment of ostracized Islamic and Arabic individuals.
In “Ursus Arctos Horribilis,” “Electrocuting the Elephant,” “On Crowsnest Mountain” and “The Windspir Sisters’ Home for the Dying,” Trunkey explores in different ways the idea of death and mortality, while touching on what it means to mourn. In “Ursus Arctos Horribilis” and “On Crowsnest Mountain,” she deconstructs the psyches of mourning individuals. The speaker in “Ursus Arctos Horribilis” believes his wife, who is in intensive care after being attacked by a bear, is actually inhabited by the spirit of the very bear that attacked her. His narrative is a story of mourning someone he believes has passed but is not truly gone. This is also the case with “On Crownest Mountain,” which follows a mother and father climbing up the mountain where their son went missing. The father, clearly the more pragmatic of the two, believes their son is dead and thinks their mission is useless. The mother, on the other hand, believes she will find her son, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The story moves away from the heartbreaking narrative when Trunkey takes a fantastical turn and gives a voice to nature – the force that has apparently taken the life of their son. Readers are given an opportunity, after an extended look into the inner workings of mourning, to see the external characteristics of the act.
“Electrocuting the Elephant” and “The Windspir Sisters’ Home for the Dying” are both centred on the act of dying, the former told from the perspective of an elephant named Topsy, who is being electrocuted on Coney Island by Thomas Edison, while the latter follows four sisters who can see and communicate with their two sisters who have died. Both stories attempt a depiction of life’s final moments, which, although difficult to imagine, Trunkey brilliantly describes.
The most compelling story of the collection is “Hands Like Birds,” which chronicles a deaf twelve-year-old girl’s transition into blindness. Along with her father and a caretaker, she travels to Niagara Falls, which, they believe will be the last thing, aside from their hometown, that the girl will ever see. Here, Trunkey masterfully describes the falls and fireworks in splinters, creating a kaleidoscope-like image of the landmark to maintain the fantastical theme permeating all her stories. The tale, while heartbreaking, brings to question what perception is and highlights the subjective way each person perceives the world.
The title story is about Ronald Reagan’s body double, who falls in love with Nancy Reagan, Ronald’s wife. The body double, known as Double Dutch, looks so similar to Reagan that sometimes even Reagan’s wife mistakes the two. The story is told retrospectively by the body double visiting Reagan in his old, ailing age, knowing this will be the last time they see each other. Interestingly, “Double Dutch” does not appear first in the collection, despite being the title story. Once the story is read, however, it becomes clear why Trunkey has chosen to use this title for the collection. The story is about two men who are virtually identical, except one is real and the other is not. Trunkey plays with this sort of duality throughout each story in the text: reality is always paired with an anti-reality of sorts.
Trunkey’s collection of stories is similar to Miranda Hill’s 2012 collection of short fiction, Sleeping Funny. Hill, too, roots her writing in the fantastic elements of reality to create a “funny” space to explore. Both Canadian authors offer a debut collection of stories with an extremely mature, refined voice, unifying their stories by weaving common themes throughout.
Anansi/Astoria | 280 pages | $19.95 | paper | ISBN# 9781770898776