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Light Lifting

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 414 ratings · 84 reviews

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTABLE BOOK OF 2012
IRISH TIMES BOOK-TO-READ FOR 2012
ATLANTIC BOOK AWARD WINNER
FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE AND THE FRANK O'CONNOR AWARD
A GLOBE & MAIL, QUILL & QUIRE, AND AMAZON.CA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Engrossing, thrilling and ultimately satisfying: each story has the weight of a novel." —The Economist

This was the day after Mike Tys...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published April 5th 2011 by Biblioasis (first published September 15th 2010)

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Best Books of 2010

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Scotiabank Giller Prize Winners and Nominees

39th out of 100 books — 16 voters

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Feb 19, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: pacific-u-mfa

An excerpt from my review of Light Lifting in The Nervous Breakdown:
MacLeod draws on a wealth of specialized information about such wide-ranging topics as parasites, running, and auto factories. But it is his understanding of our extremes of endurance, the physical as a metaphor for the spiritual, which make Light Lifting a profoundly wise book.

For the rest of the review, see: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/sh...

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May 13, 2011 Ruth Seeley rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've heard Macleod's prose described as muscular and it is that. Perhaps I'm not being fair to him, but I was disappointed by this collection. Too many of the stories had indeterminate, abrupt endings that didn't seem to be thematically justified. I'm surprised this collection won the Giller. [But it didn't, as the commenter on this review points out - it was shortlisted but didn't win. Maybe that's what I meant - was surprised it was shortlisted? I'm not really. Thinking maybe I should read thi...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Paul Riches rated it 3 of 5 stars

Light Lifting, Causing Some Disquiet

A vow was made some time ago that my reviews would reflect things I loved, or even liked a lot. Something that caused mixed feelings were not factored in. Hence, my hesitation over Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod.

This collection of short stories was recommended to me by my friends @kveenly and @rebeccahh95, who have excellent tastes in literature. But I can't help feel something is missing from my understanding of this volume. It was nominated for the Gille...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

Darkness, more often than not these days, exists as the axiom of the short story. Giving us characters as fractured as broken glass, with souls as black and jagged as a hunk of coal; they lie, cheat, beat each other up, kill one another with glorious abandon, betray basic human decencies and corrupt one another with almost comical ease. Compacted fiction takes the best and worst of us and distills said elements into a mere few thousand words. With so little space to work with, it’s no wonder why...more Darkness, more often than not these days, exists as the axiom of the short story. Giving us characters as fractured as broken glass, with souls as black and jagged as a hunk of coal; they lie, cheat, beat each other up, kill one another with glorious abandon, betray basic human decencies and corrupt one another with almost comical ease. Compacted fiction takes the best and worst of us and distills said elements into a mere few thousand words. With so little space to work with, it’s no wonder why so many truly effective works of short fiction leave the reader feeling as if they’ve just been mugged and left to whimper softly with a knife in one side.

It is this utterly inexorable, to-the-point humanity on display in Alexander MacLeod’s first collection of seven short stories that packs such a wallop. The characters in Light Lifting are often so cold as to appear anything but human, but their actions so recognizable—with or without cause or discernable motivation—that they could truly be nothing but. The more one gets a feel for MacLeod’s characters and style of writing, the more the prevailing coldness wipes clean and the people beneath take shape. The perfunctory use of language doesn’t sugar coat the actions of any of these characters—their filth is in the open, plain-as-day visible as the scars so many of them are wearing by the time their stories come to a violent/deadly/despairing conclusion.

At once an educated economy of phrasing and an interesting exercise in truncating information, the author pares down the descriptions to only what is needed and ends up developing a secondary language of visually heavy shotgun bursts that are entirely unexpected but incredibly effective at cutting right to the quick:

“Desired outcomes. What we want is when we want it. No way to connect where we are and where we were. This is the opposite of everything we have ever done before. Sugar pills, place savers, in the circle dispenser. Click, click, click. Be sure to pull out. Blow your load. Days sprawling. Three years to finish the thesis. No rush. Smeared towels. Breakfast at three in the afternoon. Our first real bed, the mattress raised up off the ground. First place. Tall ceilings. Candles melting in the necks of wine bottles. Sticky cast off T-shirts. Summer humidity. Sun dresses and tank tops. Thin tan lines rolling over her shoulder. Freckles. Crusty Kleenex. A rubber swirling down the bowl. Ribbed for her pleasure. Random Wednesday afternoon. Lazy like you do not know.”

What feels cold and detached at first is quickly revealed to be loaded; each story is a cavalcade of emotions and actions we likely wish forgotten. MacLeod isn’t interested in playing it safe, or washing over the little bits of darkness we can uniformly relate to with a coat of nostalgia. He'd much rather use that nostalgia—the memories of people, places, and specific times and events in our lives—as a vehicle for playing on the past and mistakes so many of us have made (or wanted to make), holding them up as if to say, “This is what’s really in there. Take a good long luck, mother fucker.”

Brilliant.(less)

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Sep 22, 2010 A.J. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, fiction, short-stories

Alexander MacLeod's debut collection of short fiction, drawn from 15 years of writing for literary magazines in Canada, tempts you to indulge in the kind of superlatives that might be counterproductive in the age of hype; just how brilliant can it really be? Well, pretty damn brilliant, actually. Among the seven longish stories that make up this collection, there is not a single misstep. This book is that good.

These stories lead in one direction, dart down a side alley, and then return to themse...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very enjoyable collection of short stories, which were darker than some of the other short story collections I've read, but the author does an excellent job at examining the human psyche, and creating stories of people at their best and worst moments in life.

There were a few times, the writing and ending of the story was almost haunting. In both Miracle Mile and Adult Beginner I, Miracle Mile. Both interesting stories, but the ending is both unexpected and gives you chills. Especially Adult...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Scotchneat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadia, family-fiction, humour, outcasts

When your dad is a famous award-winning author, it must be damned hard to build your own stories and put them in print.

Alexander MacLeod's first collection of short stories is a corker. He has a great ear for family voices and is a dab hand at sketching big worlds and thoughts in small things, pop culture references, landscapes. He is also absolutely unafraid to leave you to figure out something on your own, and I appreciate that.

Windsor, ON is a character in this book. A Windsor that has a lot...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

A wonderful book of seven short stories. These are intricate stories about people overtaken by their passions or by machines or by their past leading to transformations, good and bad. "That's when it happened. An understanding, a new realization, came into her head and triggered a transformation that was almost total. Maybe this was how all learning worked in the end. The right kind of concentration deployed in the right way at the right time. If you paid attention and sorted carefully, put thin...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Friederike Knabe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian-lit

The world that Alexander MacLeod's protagonists inhabit is not an easygoing or a comfortable one, it is - a realistic one. Set in different urban milieus, many of his characters are young, struggling to get ahead in life. Some confront personal adversity, hoping for companionship or friendship, others attempt to find solace and even redemption. With his debut story collection MacLeod exhibits an exquisite writing talent that succeeds in capturing, with precision and depth, both the inner working...more The world that Alexander MacLeod's protagonists inhabit is not an easygoing or a comfortable one, it is - a realistic one. Set in different urban milieus, many of his characters are young, struggling to get ahead in life. Some confront personal adversity, hoping for companionship or friendship, others attempt to find solace and even redemption. With his debut story collection MacLeod exhibits an exquisite writing talent that succeeds in capturing, with precision and depth, both the inner workings of the individual's psyche and their social and physical circumstances. The back cover of the book describes the author - very aptly I find - as a writer of "ferocious physicality".

The majority of the seven stories are written in first person voices, drawing the reader intimately into each of the narrators' points of view on concrete experiences in their lives. In 'Miracle Mile', Michael, while preparing for an important international running meet, reflects back on his long friendship with his closest competitor. As children they already raced together, and sometimes, at night, they risked their lives by running through a cross-border train tunnel beneath the Detroit river. One dangerous run is so vividly depicted, that I felt myself holding my breath until I knew that the kids were both safely on the other side. In this and other stories the author describes in detail the material details that underpin any of his protagonists' physical activities: be it running, swimming, holing bricks, or manoeuvring a bicycle on the icy roads in winter.

While most central characters are young men and only very few women hold an important place in a story, the story of Stace in 'Adult Beginner I' stands out. We meet her when she stands high above the ground on a ledge, reluctant to follow the urging by her gang of friends to jump - as a dare - from a hotel's roof straight down into the Detroit river. It is a dark night and only a few lights can guide the direction of her fall into the water... a water that seems anything but inviting. Her deep-seated fear has a complex history that is told in flashbacks, going back to her first exposure, as a child, to the Atlantic Ocean and a wave that threatened her. MacLeod compellingly evokes Stace's memory: "The wall of water came into her vision, looming over her mother's shoulder like an old-style gangster thug sifting out of the crowd in a grey trench coat with a brim of his fedora pulled low down. He was so thick and so wide, he blocked out the sky. He shoved her mother forward headfirst into the sand before grabbing the girl and carrying her off in the opposite direction."

For me, Stace's challenge is one of the most affecting and richly developed stories in the collection. 'The Loop' is another remarkable story. The teenager Allan rides his bicycle to deliver medications and other drugstore supplies for old-fashioned pharmacist, Mr Musgrave. Over a period of three years, he gets to know a diverse group of customers - from nice, half-blind old Mrs McKay, to eighty-nine year old Mrs. Hume, to huge, spooky (youngish) Barney. His description of his interaction with his customers is meticulous and very perceptive. He knows that his customers' requests go beyond what a teenager should be asked and he learns more about their mental or other health conditions than he wants to be dealing with. He nevertheless experiences empathy, and in some cases affection, for his 'clients'. And one day, he surprises himself by his ability for compassion despite his reserve and even disgust. "The Loop" and 'Adult Beginner I' turned into my favourites in this collection. Their central characters illustrate a gentler touch and stand in contrast to the somewhat raw and dark emotions and physical aggressions that lie beneath many of the other stories. Overall, I find myself torn between my attraction to the author's excellent and precise writing and my limited curiosity as regards most of the topics he expands on and the characters who inhabit them. Other readers may well find others or all of the stories captivating.

Canadian author Alexander MacLeod was a 2010 Giller Prize finalist with this collection that also has been named "Book of the Year" by other institutions in Canada. He is the son of award winning Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod, who won the International Foreign Fiction Prize (IMPAC) in 1999 for his novel "No Great Mischief". (less)

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Mar 02, 2011 Lucinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, short-stories, contemporary-fiction

sigh... another collection of depressing short stories. well - that's my overly simplified first statement about this book.

in actual fact i am having a hard time putting my finger on the exact reasons why these stories didn't really sit with me that well. as short stories they don't really need to fit the classic element of plot ('who reads for plot anyways, right?') but still there is some aspect of how MacLeod tells his stories that is just... missing something. but there are some stories that...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Alexander Inglis rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian-author, literary-fiction

Shortlisted for both the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize and 2011 Commonwealth Prize, Alexander MacLeod's collection of short stories, Light Lifting, comes by its praises honestly. It is the author’s debut collection (although the stories had already appeared in various literary magazines). One newspaper reviewer called MacLeod "an unexpectedly physical writer" and "an explorer of gritty masculinity and adrenalin-fuelled anger ... he can also be surpassingly delicate".

The seven stories include:
"M...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Nemo rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had heard great things about this short story collection, and was thrilled to begin reading. I found myself rather disappointed, however. Macleod fleshes out great, detailed characters, who are made real by their imperfections. At times, I certainly felt for the characters, particularly in the last two stories. I saw one reviewer describe his writing as "muscular", and I feel I have to agree with that, personally. He is at times poetic; and yet at other points, I feel his writing is muscular a...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Dot rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have enjoyed the novels of Alistair MacLeod so I was keen to try this collection of short stories by his son Alexander Macleod and I have not been disappointed. The stories are all about ordinary people involved in ordinary situations and are beautifully crafted so that the mundane is made interesting. MacLeod offers a window into the soul of his characters so that the reader temporarily enters the world of different people whether it is a line worker in an auto plant, or an athlete preparing...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Molly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short

A truly great short story collection. The first few stories in this book are amazing, especially "Miracle Mile," which provides a look into what it's like to be at the bottom of the top runners competing for the Olympic trials. Check out this quote:

"You have to sign the same deal if you want to be good--I mean truly good--at anything. Burner and I, all those other guys, we understood this. We know all about it. Every pure specialist is the same way so either you know what I'm talking about or yo...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Tamara Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 09, 2012 Ian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Alexander MacLeod's first collection of stories is distinguished by a raw, muscular quality that lifts it above the ordinary. In these seven pieces the characters often face decisions that place body and soul at risk. Many are stretched to the limit of their endurance, testing their bodies against their will to succeed. Or they are staring squarely into a gaping hole where their life used to be, struggling through the aftermath of some misfortune. In defiance of profound physical revulsion, the...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Evaluations are difficult--even when you're comparing apples to apples. MacLeod's collection is certainly even in both its style and content, but Light Lifiting is a different fruit than a novel.

I was in awe of a number of things in all the stories. There is a sense of timing that makes each page dramatic. MacLeod has a feel for when to shout and when to whisper, when to run and when to linger. And there's depth. How does he know all this stuff? I expect it in a novel, to have things researched...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Pooker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadiana, short-stories

Christmas booty!

I asked for this book because everybody was raving about it. And for exactly that reason I was reluctant to read it.

I love short stories. They are my favourite thing to read. I'm not sure why. I'm just a self-indulgent reader not a critic. I don't have to know why something works or doesn't. I am often an impatient and totally undisciplined reader. I'll devour whole collections in a sitting, as if at a smorgasbord. I like to read a story from a new writer and be able to say, "Ooh...more Christmas booty!

I asked for this book because everybody was raving about it. And for exactly that reason I was reluctant to read it.

I love short stories. They are my favourite thing to read. I'm not sure why. I'm just a self-indulgent reader not a critic. I don't have to know why something works or doesn't. I am often an impatient and totally undisciplined reader. I'll devour whole collections in a sitting, as if at a smorgasbord. I like to read a story from a new writer and be able to say, "Ooh, that was good. That writer has potential." And because I've been reading for more decades than I like to admit, I also like coming across something by that writer years later and being able to say, "Hey, I recognize that voice. Look how it has matured." And I especially like putting myself in the very capable hands of short story writers I've known for years. I know their voices. I know how they are going to manipulate me. Reading them is like comfort food for the soul.

So why didn't I want to read this book? Maybe, because I thought it just couldn't possibly live up to the hype. Maybe because I thought that the author couldn't possibly deserve it; he was just inheriting riches from his father. I dunno. But I definitely did start reading this book with a more critical eye than if I had just picked it up by chance.

I didn't gobble them up in one sitting; I read each story in separate sittings. And I'm left with the undeniable conclusion that this author, this book deserves all the hype they've been getting.

I loved all of these stories. At the core of each one is something quite ordinary, something that has happened to me or something I've wondered about, some person like someone I've known. A story doesn't have to have that, but I like it when it does. Perhaps these little core somethings are universal. I don't know, but they were familiar to me and grounded me to the stories.

I loved how each of the stories had something brewing underneath, something dangerous or sinister and I loved how they gave me what I call the "oh-oh moment" when the reader feels something shift and realizes things are not going to play out as they might expect.

I loved how each story came back to its beginning, making a perfect whole. You would never say about these stories, I want to know what happens next, they should be longer, or novels.

I was thinking that I was the last person on the planet to read these stories, but if I'm not and you haven't read them, do it.
(less)

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Dec 05, 2010 Alexis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

I did not love this book the way everyone else did. I think it was actually overhyped for me. I've read 15 short stories collections this year, and I think that had an influence on my enjoyment.

That said, there is a lot that is right with this collection. I like the sheer physicality and some of the stories were great. However, I disliked his over use of sentence fragments and listing. I could appreciate some of the technical aspects of the stories in this collection, but I didn't like it as muc...more

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Jun 10, 2011 A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Dynamite short stories that never fail to surprise. I loved his characters and settings. At times his tales are a bit dour, but his prose spurs you on to finish them even when you want to turn away. I thought Adult Beginner was the strongest tale of story in the book. It's about a woman who learns to swim as an adult and finds herself jumping off a building into a river. MacLeod does an excellent job of weaving in the back story of her fear of water with the current scene on top of the building.

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Mar 02, 2011 C added it

Shelves: half-read, giller-prize-finalist

captivating, but depressing. I really enjoyed the story about the track stars, but found the story about the couple with lice difficult to follow. Enjoyed the Macleod's writing style, which was more like a conversation, but did not enjoy the short story format. I would just get into a story and be interested in the characters and something tragic or drastic would happen and it would be over. I find that when I read stories like that I just can't start a new one; I have to digest it and think abo...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Mauberley added it

An assured debut of a terrific writer. As I read each story, I thought to myself that it had to be the best tale in the collection but this impressions was regularly exploded by the one that followed. The last image from the final story in the collection is unforgettable.
In 2010, I heard the author read from 'Miracle Mile' and it made a strong impression on me. Revisiting the same passage when I read the book last week (Feb 2012), it had lost none of its power.

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Dec 30, 2010 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a collection of 7 short stories that rival the best of the form. MacLeod centers them around people and situations that almost all of us think we know but he gives us the details that take us deeper. At times, I laughed out loud and, at others, I raced through the pages because I was so worried about the central character that I had to see what happened. Highly recommended.

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Mar 31, 2012 Paige rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow, these stories are awfully well-written. Each one grabbed me and refused to let go. My only complaint is one about short stories in general -- it bothers me to get attached to characters and to storylines only to have to let them go so quickly. I will absolutely be rooting for Alexander MacLeod to write a novel. In the meantime, I'd recommend this collection. But be warned, the author definitely seems to be drawn to themes of human frailty and the bleak aspects of life. Not recommended for t...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Light Lifting is the best short story collection I've read in a while. There were no stories I found noticably weaker than the others--in fact, there wasn't a single story I would call weak, period. It's not easy to choose a favourite, but if pushed, I would probably go with "Adult Beginner I", which kept me awake and reading far longer than I'd intended one night, because I simply could not stand to put it down before I found out how it ended. And the ending was a fine example of the darkness t...more

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Nov 07, 2010 Nykea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, canadian, lit-fiction

Beautiful and tragically realistic short stories, putting on display all the faults of human nature. A swimmer afraid of water narrowly averts sure death to awake to another tragedy, contractors lose their cool after barely being able to contain their anger for years, a father deals with guilt over killing his wife and son in a car accident....

Shortlisted for the Giller, 2010

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Mar 15, 2011 Evelyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

This book of short stories was recommended by a Maritime book store owner as one of the top 10 books of 2010. The stories were all very different, but the common theme was, in my opinion, an "unsettled" ending. Not really a book that I would recommend to my friends, but it was an interesting read.

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Mar 13, 2011 Krista rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can't say that I was a fan of the way that most of the stories would end. I have an alright imagination, but it's the authors job to tell their characters stories. I felt left out in the cold with a few of the ones included in this book.

That being said, I still enjoyed MacLeod's writing, and some of the stories really touched me, like "The Number Three".

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Nov 11, 2012 HKd rated it 3 of 5 stars

Well written collection that actually made sense (a lot of modern short story collections leave me feeling "huh?") The writing is strong, especially when the topic is bodily activity; I especially enjoyed the opening story, "Miracle Mile" and the title story, "Light Lifting".

Only 3 stars because the endings were both brutal and a bit hit and miss.

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May 01, 2012 Kara rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favourite collections of short stories. I found myself slowly reading each story so that I could savour them. MacLeod is a brilliant storyteller who knows how to keep readers completely entrenched in the story with him. The characters feel real and alive and authentic. I have recommended this book to so many different people because I see a little of all of us in these stories and characters.

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About Alexander MacLeod

Alexander MacLeod is a Canadian writer, whose debut short story collection Light Lifting was a shortlisted nominee for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The son of noted Canadian novelist and short story writer Alistair MacLeod, he was born in Inverness, Nova Scotia and raised in Windsor, Ontario, where his father taught at the University of Windsor. He currently lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, wh...more

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