12 minute read
handwringers
Book review: handwringers
Debut fiction collection presents sophisticated characterization, commentary on Jewish identity
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hannah eiserman
arts editor
Reading as a writer is often different than just reading for fun. As a creative writer – because my writing endeavours do go beyond the pages of the Carillon – I tend to look for different things in books than the average reviewer. The qualities in a creative work that I admire are the ones I want to adapt in my own writing: decadent prose that hits like a gut punch, characters compelling in their honesty (or dishonesty), and moments that sit in the discomfort of the weird and inexplicable.
All this preamble is to say I’ve wanted to review the short story collection handwringers by Sarah Mintz since I was hired as the Arts & Culture editor, and I finally have a gap where I’m able to! However, as I started coming up with what I wanted to say about this book, I realized a lot of what I thought about it may not be “conventional” review material, per se. So, I hope you’ll bear with me as I conduct my own unconventional review of this collection!
First, I have to note how exciting this book is to me as a student in my final year of the English program here at the U of R. Sarah Mintz is a recent alumna of our M.A. program, and handwringers is a version of her thesis! It’s so inspiring to me that material she wrote during her time at university went on to be an actual published book – and one that’s pretty darn good! The book was also produced here in Regina by Radiant Press, who have heaps of other cool titles out like the flash-fiction novella Tiny Ruins by Nicole Haldoupis, a resident of Saskatoon. And for anyone else grinding away at NaNoWriMo, be advised that Radiant Press is actually open for general submissions of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction manuscripts!
On to the collection! The title is fitting for a collection as unconventional as this one: Mintz leaves a note at the end of the book to explain that the title comes from a quote from an essay by Susan A. Glenn, which says a “‘good deal of hand wringing ensued’ over a
study that seemed to demonstrate that people who held strong prejudices against ‘Jews, Blacks, and Catholics,’ tended to be the most accurate in their selection of Jewish faces.” The stories themselves are largely concerned with identity, but particularly Jewish identity. As a result, there are small sketches of faces distributed on random pages throughout the text.
One of the most important things to know about Mintz’s collection is that the stories are actually flash or micro fiction, meaning they are around five pages at most or four short lines of dialogue and parenthetical action at least. Flash and micro are forms that have become very popular in the last decade, probably because social media has radically altered our attention spans. They’re not generally my chosen form to write in, but I do truly enjoy reading them. It’s certainly remarkable what storytelling can be done with only a few words. Within their short page span, some of Mintz’s stories use traditional narrative styles and some play with form. A few more closely resemble poetry,
like “Invitations” and “L’Shana Tova, I Guess.” One is written in a very experimental form which features exposition coupled with file titles, called “to whom life happens.”
The thing that struck me the most about this collection were the opening lines. Mintz is an absolute expert at crafting the first lines of stories. Some personal favourites include: “Miranda was sure she’d get shit on her head,” from “Little Wisdom I”, and “Josephine holds the leash taut then yanks and kicks the dog – no, she would never!” from “Crowded Rooms.” The first lines of her stories are generally provocative, enticing, and/or hilarious – and in the case of the second one, very indicative of character. Clearly, the narrator is unreliable, and Josephine may or may not be the kind of person who kicks dogs. Don’t you want to know more about these people?
Some of the stories are just downright weird, which is really what I live for lately. My two personal favourites were “Please Don’t Eat That” and “Strangers
in the Vent.” The former is about a young lady who eats trash (out of necessity at first) and has exceptionally poor luck in dating. The latter is about a tenant who “understand[s] why someone would murder the Russian girl in the adjacent apartment just for cutting her food rhythmically.” This is also an example of another one of her spectacular opening lines.
I did find, at times, that though I knew there was a comment on contemporary Jewish identity being made, I just didn’t have enough knowledge or context for it to click. But I also knew Mintz’ writing wasn’t meant to cater to me. As she notes in her explanation of the title, Jewish folks “chosen to attempt to identify Jewish faces in pictures” were “unexpectedly incompetent” in identifying Jewish faces. Contrasting this with the other quotes about non-Jewish people, one of the problems seems to be letting outsiders determine Jewish identity. Mintz is clearly speaking to other Jewish people who may be feeling fragmented or disconnected from their people and culture. It’s not important I understand her message: it’s important that her community does.
And that doesn’t mean that the stories aren’t enjoyable without that context, or that I didn’t learn anything from it. I certainly do feel like I know a lot more about Jewish culture than I did before, and found I related to lots of the struggles of identity Mintz’s characters face that had nothing to do with whether or not I was also of the faith.
To conclude, I would absolutely recommend picking up a copy of handwringers next time you’re at The Penny University or ordering off Radiant Press’ website! If you’re anything like me, entering into either of those places – a bookstore or a book website – with a credit card can be a dangerous endeavour. Proceed with caution! Or don’t. I wouldn’t blame you if you judged some books by their covers, and took home most of Radiant Press’ collection based solely on their beautiful designs.
– Hannah Eiserman
Hannah Eiserman A smorgasbord of cartoon people with no social distancing and no masks in sight. An appalling illustration for a pandemic released book.
Animal Crossing’s new update
The game that kept millions sane at the onset of the pandemic releases its last free update
jorah bright arts writer
Picture this: it’s April of 2020. You’re stuck in your home with your Nintendo Switch and one comfort: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (AC:NH). There was a joy and a peace in spending hundreds of hours on your own deserted island with your villagers and a raccoon you’re thousands of bells in debt to. The cozy game brought great comfort to its players, and now it’s back with a new update to do this same again. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 was released on November 3, 2021, with tons of new features and a little bit of controversy. When the update was announced, some people were upset because Nintendo said it was the last major free update for AC:NH. Many people poked holes in this argument, saying that Nintendo could’ve easily taken the EA route and made this update downloadable content (DLC) and charged money for it. The “EA Route” refers to how Electronic Arts made the base game of The Sims 4 costs $40, but all of the DLC costs over $900.
The new AC:NH update comes with lots of new features, including a cafe that can open in the museum, run by Brewster. Brewster is a pigeon that was initially introduced in AC: Wild Word. Another returning character to this update is Kapp’n, originally from the first Animal Crossing game, back again to give you a boat ride for 1000 Nook Miles. K.K. Slider fans, be ready for 12 new songs being added to his setlist.
The game has finally added cooking, making the kitchen in your home functional. It behaves in a similar manner to the DIY system. Now, the fruit you worked so hard to get from other islands and the sea bass you’ve caught so many times will come in handy as you learn all the different cooking recipes available. A new item for ease of access is a permanent ladder. No more spending thousands of bells for an incline or having to get out your ladder every time you need to climb. And for those just waiting so patiently for Flick to appear on your island only to find out you just missed him, Isabelle will now tell you what island merchant is visiting your island.
And what might be the best update: storing DIY recipe cards in your home. No more piles of DIY strewn across the island. It’ll be a relief to clean up your island of all the cards hiding everywhere. Now, the villagers visiting your home can’t see the mess of DIY’s you’re hiding in the back room. That’s right, villagers can now visit your homes. They’ll interact with your items, admire the portrait you have of them, and leave immediately if you have cockroaches.
Another fan favourite is also returning: gyroids. The Animal Crossing staple returns in a customizable fashion and is available to be placed anywhere with their own achievements.
If you’re like me and you recently reset your island to try again and make some different decisions, you’ll have to wait a little bit before you can try out a lot of these new things. Most of the new update items are inaccessible until you reach certain milestones on your island, but that’s a good excuse to play some more and work towards paying your debts to Tom Nook. There are lots to find and unlock in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0, and it’ll only cost you 731,380 Bells and 31,600 Nook Miles to do it all.
Ian Hughes via Flickr A player’s room on Animal Crossing that’s better decorated than my apartment.
Eric Clapton: yet another problematic favourite A quick summary of what Eric Clapton has against vaccines – and immigrants, apparently
hammad ali staff writer
I might be dating myself here, but there was a time when for me and my peers, the epitome of a love ballad was “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton. Only much later did some of us learn that this English guitarist, singer, and songwriter once ranked second in a list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time, put together by the Rolling Stones magazine. He was also ranked in the top five on two other, similar rankings.
Victim of a great personal tragedy, Clapton’s son Conor passed away in an accident in 1991. The artist channeled his grief in one of his best songs, “Tears in Heaven.” In his illustrious career, Clapton has received 18 Grammy awards and was honoured by the Queen of England in 2004 for his contribution to music. These accolades make it hard on those of us who grew up with his music to come to terms with his unfortunate re-entry into the media.
Joining the long (and growing ever longer) line of celebrities who seem to be letting down their fans, Clapton has recently been on the news as a leading anti-vaccine activist. Not only that, he has apparently been donating to several movements that are geared towards spreading skepticism about the vaccine, and also took part in at least one lockdown protest concert called the Jam for Freedom. The artist’s personal social media is also seen replete with accusations of the vaccines being propaganda.
Clapton embarked on a U.S. tour, booked in the red states, despite surging numbers of new cases and death rates. Even worse, he then made a point of announcing that no proof of vaccination would be needed to attend. Many are lamenting this decline of the former great – yet another testament to how you either die a hero or do something to disappoint the multitudes of people who once loved you and your art.
Of course, journalists around the world went digging around for something, anything, that would explain this abrupt apparent change in personality. What they found might be worse than Clapton’s anti-vaccine stance. Dave Wakeling, a musician and former Clapton fan, has shared stories of the time in 1976 when he saw Clapton in Birmingham . Wakeling recalls Clapton, clearly drunk, going on a rant about immigrants. Based on other published accounts of the time, he began making racist comments, complete with nasty slurs, right from the stage. He also states that the influx of immigrants into the UK must be stopped, because otherwise the country will “become a colony.” Earlier in 1968, Clapton had endorsed a prominent anti-immigration politician, Enoch Powell. Wakeling and others recall that soon after the Birmingham incident, Clapton did issue an apology that was essentially just him saying that he was drunk and having a bad day.
Former bandmates also remember the incident and said that this side of Clapton was a total surprise to them. As usual, there are also those who defend the artist, saying that his rant does not reflect his true feelings and that he was just not in full control of himself at the venue. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2017, Clapton himself said that he is surprised by how different of a person he is when fueled by drugs and alcohol. In his 2007 memoir, he once again insisted that his statements were not “meant to be racist,” but rather “anti-government.” Many of those present, however, do not feel this aligns with the words Clapton had used when singling out specific immigrant groups.
One reason why there seems to be so much hearsay and unclear anecdotes about this incident is that somehow no major news outlets covered it, and next to no recordings of the show survive. Had it not been for Clapton’s recent problematic anti-vaccine actions, maybe this would not have come to the surface. Either way, as a former fan, there is much to lament in this situation. Time to add one more artist to the list of those whose work I can no longer enjoy unconditionally.
