Jessie Neilson reviews an unflinching look at ordinary life.
DELETED SCENES FOR LOVERS
Tracey Slaughter
Victoria University Press
Tracey Slaughter lectures in creative writing at Waikato University. Her work, inclusive of several of these stories, has been widely published in collections such as Landfall and JAAM as well as major overseas publications. She has won national and international prizes for individual stories and essays. She edits the online literary journal, Mayhem.
Headlice as "dead gluey stars'', dust that "turned yellow and resinous along the curves of his ear'', Slaughter's debut short story collection assaults brilliantly with an avalanche of fresh, distasteful images. She homes right in on the grittiness and grottiness of domestic, suburban life, and of failed or ended love affairs, for better or worse.
A dead lover haunts the sad nothingness that remains with the ghost of his fingers "brushing words onto the glass''. Shabby caravans in the neglected wilderness, stinky fish and chip shops replete with orange vinyl chairs and greasy, ancient magazines: the settings of unappealing parochialism are mapped out in glory.
The characters who people these places are as wonderfully grubby and precise: frumpy, elderly women plodding around in worn slippers; scrapping female bogan mothers; coma-ed boy racers; no-hopers with shirts "dieseled, gone the colour of that fly's back-end'', and endless more to appal and delight.
Slaughter writes of stories that had "all turned the colour of apple core''. Mouldering and shrivelling-up characters abound. Her stories scour up the dregs of small life, some harmless enough, others deeply disturbing.
Scenes of a long-term nature is a poignant observation of an elderly couple and their lives together, and one of the more peaceful. Consent is to the other extreme: a vignette of absolute viciousness and a young woman's slide into scenes of physical torment.
Some of the stories follow one strong narrative thread while others jump in and out of scenes, filmically. The former are the more satisfying overall, allowing as they do an investment in the slimy scenes and the filthy characters bogged down by their issues. She covers suicide, casual sex, violence, lost children, car-wreck survivors and much more: every story alive in its unappealingness.
The more loosely arranged snapshots are effective too, in an alternate way. Some pieces are interdisciplinary, such as the eponymous short story which frames the narrative within a film production.
More outstanding images among the multitude include the traipsing nanas, "tracksuit smelling like the kitchen junk drawer, rancid butter and gladwrap and biscuit and fag'', and the dolls that are kept in the old butchery chiller and all end up smelling like home kill.
One could go on at seeking out Slaughter's unpretty ragtag tales of life, where perhaps, but for the grace of God, goes the reader.
Jessie Neilson is a University of Otago library assistant.
Win a copy
The ODT has five copies of Tracey Slaughter's short story collection, Deleted Scenes for Lovers, to give away courtesy of Victoria University Press.
For your chance to win a copy, email helen.speirs@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email, and ‘‘Deleted Scenes Book Competition'' in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, June 28.
LAST WEEK'S WINNERS
Winners of last week's giveaway, Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley, courtesy of Hachette, were: Denise Taylor, of Glenavy, and Allan Berland and Royce Parata, both of Dunedin.
