Short Story Month - what begins with bird by Noy Holland

Might as well start Short Story Month off with a great one, right?  Actually, the hope is that all of the stories read this month will be great, or at least close to it.  This story, "what begins with bird", is the title story from Noy Holland's collection, what begins with bird (FC2, 2005).

Holland's writing is meant to be read aloud.  Perhaps as we  transition from National Poetry Month to Short Story Month, the selection of her work to lead us off is an appropriate one as each and every word that ends up typed onto the pages is necessary, and has a rhythm with the words both before and after it.  This particular story has a new mother being visited by her sister, one not quite right, and one that she has always looked after.  Leading to the conflict of whom to watch over, and how guilty to feel over not watching over the other. 

Her work also utilizes imagery with great success, as she explores relationships with her prose.  Here we have her describing a C-section:

     "I listened:  this was his being born.
     This was the sound of a hand wedged in, and then the small bent head popped free, quick as a tooth you are losing.  This that I felt backed into my throat was the body shoved into the cage of my ribs, brief, and how surprising:  the rest had seemed so distant:  a ditch cut into a distant slab, spongy and geologic, marsh, a bowl of softened bone.  Then the baby, the bawling sight of him; then the staples driven in."

Another example of her prose, one I believe shows the importance of rhythm or cadence to her writing:

     "I know I have not taken my pills yet, I have taken the last of the pills I had that have been, while I heal, a help to me, in the eveningtime in particular, dark coming on -- the flattened trees -- to dull the ache, the progress, the healing meant by the mess I pass, the sheeny lumpy liverish ruin that is left of being sufficient, of having been, for a time, sufficient, for a time, I swear it, calm."

Read through that a couple of times and do so out loud.  You'll be amazed at the rhythm you begin to automatically read with.  This combination of cadence, and language, and delving into relationships, and almost a bit of a Southern Gothic feel to her work makes Noy Holland a writer to read.

Here is a link to the beginning of this story published online as well.

Comments

[Peter Markus]

You're setting the bar high kicking the month off with Noy Holland. Good for you. And good for Noy. Once you finish with this story go find her book The Spectacle of the Body. Turn to the story "Orbit." Ready yourself then to be launched.

[jensen]

Great post, Dan. Noy's work is really amazing. I second the recommendation of "Orbit." I'm a little biased, of course, but I think any of her stuff is pretty rad.