Holley Rubinsky
BooksAt Close Range
The new stories in At Close Range are tales that tell what was going on everywhere in Arizona, California and Nevada when I traveled through them with a cat in a travel trailer, during winters when there was nothing else I could think of to do (1999-2005). They are fictional takes on grief, separation, anxiety and wonder. Rapid Transits and Other Stories, 1991
“Holley Rubinsky’s stories are downright disturbing. They vibrate with submerged anger, grief, violence, betrayal. They will return to haunt the reader in the middle of the night. Forceful and beautifully evocative in their telling, these finely crafted stories grab the reader about the throat. There is a steely uncompromising hand behind this body of work, not a hint of sentimentality; relentlessly determined to portray accurately the underside of life.” Sandra Birdsell, Children of the Day, The Russlander, The Missing Child At First I Hope for Rescue, 1996
At First I Hope for Rescue
Picador, USA, 1998. “Rubinsky’s voice is clear, her eyes and ears are carefully tuned, and she has something fresh and loving to say about the world that we live in daily. Too often, at our peril, we neither see nor hear that world and consequently cannot love it. Rubinsky’s stories are restorative in the best sense of that word, and renewing.” Russell Banks “At First I Hope for Rescue is a remarkable novel by a huge and genuine talent. Holley Rubinsky has perfect pitch — not just for characters, for the way they think and speak and behave, but for the whole enterprise of telling a story as well as it can be told.” Ian Brown “This is rocky emotional country. [These linked stories] are oddly beautiful, spellbinding evocations of the subtle psychological currents eddying about the most mundane people...” Quill & Quire “Affecting, fascinating...These stories [have] the power of ambush...Rubinsky reveals the strangeness of humans and the heart-rending drama of ordinary survival...The overall impression is one of revelation.” The Vancouver Sun “Books this good are rare...You could sample the life’s work of Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant and then come to this book without disappointment.” The Edmonton Journal “There are raw moments here, but there is also a wacky sort of pluck to the way the characters talk and stagger on with their lives that feels distinctly Canadian....Impressive.” Maclean’s Beyond This Point, 2006
McClelland & Stewart, 2006
Harrowing, yes, never depressing BARBARA CAREY The Toronto Star The characters in Holley Rubinsky's terrific debut novel are both sinned against and sinning, to varying degrees. The damage they inflict, or have inflicted upon them, frays their most intimate relationships. They struggle with loss and upheaval forced upon them by circumstances; they're humbled by their own weaknesses. There's death and betrayal and retribution, but also a generous measure of levity — all rendered with the polish and verve of a skilled storyteller... Lenore is Rubinsky's most wonderful creation, and her escapades furnish the novel with its funniest moments. She's a bit of a bumbler and often blunderingly outspoken, but her heart's in the right place, even if her foot is often in her mouth. As the author puts it, Lenore is "the one trying too hard, struggling with her booming personality, her lack of finesse." There's some harrowing stuff here, but the novel isn't grim or depressing, perhaps because the characters, however painful their experiences, are still moving forward, figuring out a way to survive. Beyond This Point has the texture and complexity of real life, rendered with wisdom, insight and humour. |
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