Crossed Genres #27, March 2015

Reviewed by Lillian Csernica

“Stone Dove” by Elizabeth Beechwood

A village in the remote mountains is invaded and all the men and boys conscripted for battle.  The elderly, women and children take refuge from the coming winter inside mountain caves.  One of the women is pregnant and faces a complicated delivery without any doctor available.  The mountains themselves take pity on the woman and send her a very special form of help.  The story does not end there.

I can’t recall reading a story that’s told from the point of view of the setting itself.  Getting the mountains’ perspective on human beings and their troubles is an achievement in itself.  The help that’s sent by the mountains doesn’t just vanish once the crisis is past.  How the villagers react to the ongoing presence of that help says a lot about human nature and the group dynamics of people when they’re forced to cooperate and then allowed to go back to everyday life.  I want to say more about how the theological and cosmological themes are addressed, but I really don’t want to give away the centerpiece of the story.  Let me just say that this is a very good story, so good it made me cry.

“Quiet Hour” by Peni Griffin

Delia is having a cup of coffee in her kitchen, honoring the family custom of the “Quiet Hour.”  A phone call from a stranger alerts Delia to her mother’s medical crisis.  In the hospital, on her deathbed, Mamacita tells Delia to go to Mamacita’s kitchen for next week’s Quiet Hour.  This story is as much about Delia’s extended family and their memories of growing up alongside the boarders Mamacita took in to help pay the bills.  It’s up to Delia to sort through Mamacita’s belongings.  While she’s in the process of doing that, the next Quiet Hour arrives, bringing with it many questions and some very important answers.

The characters all stand out as individuals with their own quirks and particular memories.  I’m reminded of the characters in Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine.  What the “Quiet Hour” is and why it’s so important is a very clever idea and represents the kind of inheritance Mamacita could never have passed on in anything as mundane as a will.  The ending of the story is quite well done, powerful in a gentle, touching way.

“Any House in the Storm” by Tais Teng

Nadia is a world-class architect.  She has grown up in a climate racked by meteorological upheavals.  At her school, in her class, is Rachid, also a builder of houses that will withstand any trial.  In school they compete against each other for the best building design.  As adults in business they are at the top of their profession.  It hasn’t all been business.  There was a moment at the Prom when Nadia’s feelings could have carried her further.  The moment passed, leaving Nadia and Rachid rivals.  Now the Grand Duke of Lithuania has challenged them both to create the best house design, and to build it with their own hands.  The differences in how Nadia and Rachid perceive not just their professions but their own selves will determine the outcome.

This is an entertaining story, but the technology vs. nature theme is rather heavy-handed.  I’ve read the story three times and I still don’t have a clear idea of what Nadia and Rachid look like.  Perhaps that’s the point: it’s not their bodies but their minds that matter.  The romantic element in the story is weak in that it follows the epitome of the wrong way to write a love story.  You can’t have the hero and heroine remain at arm’s length, even to the point of active dislike in Nadia’s case, then have them struck by the sudden realization that they’ve really been in love with each other the whole time.  Rachid is two dimensional.  His ethnicity is evident only in his name.  He needs a backstory, even a brief one, to give him the depth and motivation Nadia has.  Nothing that happens in the story makes me care about Nadia and Rachid, which is unfortunate.  There’s a lot of potential here, but it goes unrealized.