Saffron and Brimstone:
Strange Stories is a 2006 short story collection from Elizabeth Hand
(republished in 2014 by Open Road Media). One a valuable spice of distinctive color and
fragrance, and the other a term implying the stink of hell, a possible
metaphorical spin on the dichotomous title is the dynamic joys of life and the deeper
problems which give them context.
Reading the collection, the possibility becomes reality, in fact, to the
point the two are synthesized.
Like the best musicians and artists, Hand lays bare a part
of her soul in Saffron and Brimstone. Solitude, tattoos, writing, rape, punk rock, island
life in Maine, art, the counter-culture, drugs, alternative lifestyles, troubled
youth—all inform the stories and are conveyed in real, human terms. Lightly sprinkled with aspects of the
fantastic, the stories in the collection are highly personal—fictionally and
non-fictionally—and for it, are some of the best writing Hand has produced. (See the Afterword for relative biographical information.)
Saffron and Brimstone opens
on the stink of hell with the dark thriller Cleopatra Brimstone. Raped as a young woman, Janie
eventually heads to Britain to house sit, and there finds employment in a zoo’s
insect department. Her passion butterflies,
the job is perfect as she looks to mark a new direction in life. That direction
one which moves more towards spiders (of the black widow variety), Janie’s new life
evolves in surprising ways. Part punk
rock, part stealth, and part lepidoptera, it’s all intrigue. Moving to a real-world hell, one that I have
experienced with an uncle, “Pavane for a Prince of the Air” is a poignant piece about a couple dealing with a brain
cancer diagnosis, and the spiritual, physical, and emotional pain that follows
on. That my uncle was also a hippie
still living the life long after the 60s and 70s were over—like Cal and Tina in
the story—only makes it more meaningful.
But even for those without similar real-life experiences, it remains
impossible not to be affected by the love and the response of their friends.
And there is a lot of existential pain in the
collection—pain mitigated indirectly by circumstances life deals out as time
moves on. The Least Trumps is the story of a young woman still coming to
terms with a past relationship. The
heartbreak not pathetic, her life on an isolated island off the Maine coast as
an exclusive tattoo artist satisfies her longing for place in life. But it does not balm the damage of the past. Discovering a strange pack of cards at a
rummage sale one day, however, inspires an act of creativity that has
consequences she never imagined.
“Wonderwall” is the story of a nineteen year old college student living
in the dirtiest suburbs of Maryland. Unsure
of her place in life, alcohol, drugs, and anti-social behavior run redolent through
her life—and her and her roommate’s lives just keep getting worse and
worse. Hitting your head against the wonderwall
hurting just as much as a real wall if not more, thankfully, it also has two
sides.
Meditations on loss, with echoes of 9-11, the second half of
the collection is appropriately titled “The Lost Domain.” Containing some of Hand’s atmospheric and
experimental writing, it opens on an abstract note. “Kronia” is not a typical story, rather a
jumbled timeline of events and equivocal recollections of meetings between ‘we’,
the French film La Jetee seemingly
the inspiration. Unrelated to music, “Calypso
in Berlin” is instead a story of the Greek nymph as she exists in New England
as an artist in modern times. Involved
in a love affair with an American named Phillip, Calypso, through art, seeks to
prevent losing him as she lost Odysseus, and makes a trip to Berlin to put her
plan in action. Perhaps the most subtly
powerful piece Hand has ever written, “Echo” is the story of a woman living
alone on an island with her dog. The
internet connection erratic, correspondence with loved ones is interspersed
with long periods of waiting. But after
a disaster on the mainland, the wait becomes almost unbearable. With brimstone opening the collection, it’s
only suitable that “The Saffron Gatherers” closes it. Recursive in the manner in which it redresses
many of the themes and tropes from the previous stories, it’s about a science
fiction writer visiting a friend in San Francisco. Surprised by the feelings which result from
their meeting, real life, however, interferes in ways neither would have hoped.
In the end, Saffron
and Brimstone: Strange Stories is a collection featuring a wide variety of
characters, but all of whom must deal with loss in some form. For some it is in the past affecting the
present, for others it is in the exigencies of the present, and for others
still, it is what the imminent future holds.
Not a fairy tale among them, each main character (all women) finds a
course in life that brings them to a new place—a place beyond the loss, but yet
as subtly surprising as situations real-life offers. Whether it be a new understanding, new circumstances,
a new locale, etc., the loss is dealt with in one way or another. The prose vivid, polished, and affecting; the
characters varied and realistically presented (i.e. as troubled and honest as
we are); and the stories appealing, from the surface action to the deeper,
cathartic developments of self and place, modern literary fantasy in short from
doesn’t get much better than this. Superb
collection.
All stories published between 2001 and 2006, the following
is the table of contents:
“Pavane for a Prince of the Air”
The Least Trumps
“Wonderwall”
The Lost Domain: Four Story Variations
“Kronia”
“Calypso in
Berlin”
“Echo”
“The Saffron
Gatherers”
Afterword
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