USEREVIEW 014 (Capsule): Tiny Ruins
Nicole Haldoupis
Tiny Ruins (Radiant Press, 2020)
ISBN 978-1-989274385 | 88 pp | $20 CAD
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How many novels do you get to read that are composed entirely of linked flash fiction? That alone is reason enough to peruse Nicole Haldoupis’ debut, Tiny Ruins (Radiant Press, 2020). The action is largely commonplace — anecdotes of minor embarrassments that threaten to become neuroses, ambivalent infatuations, prickling familial conflicts — the sort of tales we tell only our closest confidantes, those we trust to keep our most privately mundane secrets. And, like a conversation with a friend, you can breeze through this book in an evening. But the scantness of the stories, the fragility of their connection, the ultimately brief glimpses of our protagonist Alana, offer a tacit observation about how the briefest moments, the smallest triumphs, the tiniest ruins, make up a whole life.
Recommended excerpt:
Check out “Evil Eye”, in which Haldoupis fits three generations, inter-generational immigration tensions and the science-superstition dichotomy into less than one page.
