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This Unlikely Soil
This Unlikely Soil , the sophomore collection from Lambda Literary Award finalist Andrea Routley, is a quintet of linked novellas exploring the failures of kindness and connection among a rural west-coast community of queer women. Funny, incisive and at turns heart-breaking, these stories assert a powerful new voice in contemporary Canadian fiction. In “Appropriate Behaviour,” Freddie, suffering from a brain injury, seeks resolution with a neighbour after his dog bites her, but a lifetime of mixed messages yields disastrous results. “Damage” explores classist exploitations within many relationships and asks what our responsibilities are in saying no. In “Guided Walk,” Miriam’s latest clumsy infatuation pushes her to change her life, to finally “come out” on a guided walk with her cousin. When her cousin beats her to it, Miriam descends into pettiness before finding her way out of the woods. In “Midden,” Naomi, recently split from Rita and apathetically venturing into online dating, sifts through the remains of past relationships after Rita accuses her of “emotional abuse.” The quintet concludes with “This Unlikely Soil,” a finalist for the 2020 Malahat Review Novella Prize, in which Elana, following the sudden death of her mother, attempts to manufacture a meaningful relationship with a former partner’s teenaged son. A bear with a hemorrhoid, a berried-up Dungeness crab, a perimeter of slugs... this dense coastal landscape does not simply mirror the characters’ lives but shapes them. While characters often embody painful histories and cringe-worthy decision-making skills, the stories are full of humour and love.
204 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 9, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 28, 2023
In general, outstanding writing, themes were elaborate and intriguing that teased the reader to want to know more. My favourites were the three middle stories - Damage, Guided Walk and Midden. They were the most interesting of the five which makes me wonder why the author chose their first and last stories to be situated where they are. They were the weaker stories in my opinion.
September 16, 2022
Thanks to Caitlin Press and the author for providing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.
***
Reading this loosely-linked quintet of novellas chronicling the lives of five queer women on the wild West Coast of British Columbia was a discovery. It felt like I was digging my metaphorical hands into the fecund soil of author Andrea Routley’s impressive literary imagination. What the reader discovers in that soil is often unpleasant, sometimes hopeful, but always revealing.
The first story, Appropriate Behaviour, begins with one of the best opening sentences I’ve read for a while.
“Freddie moved to the Coast not long after the Great Leap, as she called it. She’d jumped from her sixth-floor balcony and miraculously survived the fall with only rib fractures and a head injury, causing relatively minor cognitive impairments.”
Freddie’s traumatic brain injury is not, as we are led to believe from the first paragraph, minor. She is a wonderful, engaging character on the page but she introduces us to what will be an ongoing theme of this collection: miscommunication. Freddie struggles with inappropriate behaviour and frequent social miscues because of her head injury. In this story, miscommunication and failure to connect with others is concrete; it is organic.
In two stories, Damage and Midden, Routley shows us different forms of miscommunication. In the linked tales, Rita and Naomi orbit each other but can never connect. Rita sees herself as animalistic: one to be mounted, to be possessed. She's searching for autonomy but she cannot find it; Naomi certainly isn’t going to give it to her. She keeps reaching out to Naomi for connection, but is beset by constant feelings of inadequacy. She’s left grasping for love in a relationship that is already dead.
Naomi eats up her exes like she’s sucking the tender meat from an oyster shell, tossing the remains behind her in a figurative midden of discarded relationships. She’s feeding her narcissism, but she’s just as lost to connection as everyone else. Naomi reflects, “Middens are, in fact, stories of what it means to be alive–accumulation, damage, permanence, impermanence, waste.” Rita and Naomi’s need for connection is not going to grow here.
I found some episodes of genuine connection in the collection. Miriam, in the coming-out story Guided Walk, cannot articulate her needs to anyone around her even while she aches with longing for a new woman in her life. She finds an almost magical-realist connection in nature. She dreams of a fierce female bear, and the bear dreams of her. A real life encounter gives her the courage to speak out, and she makes a tentative connection. Here, there is hope for change.
Miscommunication, communication, connection and change. This is what I thought about as I read these stories. I sometimes felt sympathetic to the characters, sometimes frustrated. I suspect this is Routley’s intention. What becomes clear is that compassion is crucial when we are shown the suffering of others. We all seek connection but sometimes we’re unable to grasp it because of our protective armour, and our conditioning. Perhaps the task is to approach even clumsy attempts to connect with patience and gentleness in ourselves, and others.
The collection ends with Elena, attempting to homestead in her coastal community. The eddies of past, short relationships behind her, she now finds connection to the land, the soil, and the compost she nurtures. She is sympathetic and straightforward, even in her tentative shepherding of the land. She’s not unscathed, but she’s hopeful.
“She’ll have to rebuild the raised beds, reseed the lawn. She’s so tired of starting over again and again and again. Only the compost heap is undisturbed. She jabs the pitchfork into the pile and turns the soil. Something has changed–the chemistry has shifted, and dozens and dozens of worms have somehow found their way here, tunnelling in the darkness, consuming the walls, revelling in the decay.
That’s a good sign, Elena thinks. Something will grow in this.”
***
Reading this loosely-linked quintet of novellas chronicling the lives of five queer women on the wild West Coast of British Columbia was a discovery. It felt like I was digging my metaphorical hands into the fecund soil of author Andrea Routley’s impressive literary imagination. What the reader discovers in that soil is often unpleasant, sometimes hopeful, but always revealing.
The first story, Appropriate Behaviour, begins with one of the best opening sentences I’ve read for a while.
“Freddie moved to the Coast not long after the Great Leap, as she called it. She’d jumped from her sixth-floor balcony and miraculously survived the fall with only rib fractures and a head injury, causing relatively minor cognitive impairments.”
Freddie’s traumatic brain injury is not, as we are led to believe from the first paragraph, minor. She is a wonderful, engaging character on the page but she introduces us to what will be an ongoing theme of this collection: miscommunication. Freddie struggles with inappropriate behaviour and frequent social miscues because of her head injury. In this story, miscommunication and failure to connect with others is concrete; it is organic.
In two stories, Damage and Midden, Routley shows us different forms of miscommunication. In the linked tales, Rita and Naomi orbit each other but can never connect. Rita sees herself as animalistic: one to be mounted, to be possessed. She's searching for autonomy but she cannot find it; Naomi certainly isn’t going to give it to her. She keeps reaching out to Naomi for connection, but is beset by constant feelings of inadequacy. She’s left grasping for love in a relationship that is already dead.
Naomi eats up her exes like she’s sucking the tender meat from an oyster shell, tossing the remains behind her in a figurative midden of discarded relationships. She’s feeding her narcissism, but she’s just as lost to connection as everyone else. Naomi reflects, “Middens are, in fact, stories of what it means to be alive–accumulation, damage, permanence, impermanence, waste.” Rita and Naomi’s need for connection is not going to grow here.
I found some episodes of genuine connection in the collection. Miriam, in the coming-out story Guided Walk, cannot articulate her needs to anyone around her even while she aches with longing for a new woman in her life. She finds an almost magical-realist connection in nature. She dreams of a fierce female bear, and the bear dreams of her. A real life encounter gives her the courage to speak out, and she makes a tentative connection. Here, there is hope for change.
Miscommunication, communication, connection and change. This is what I thought about as I read these stories. I sometimes felt sympathetic to the characters, sometimes frustrated. I suspect this is Routley’s intention. What becomes clear is that compassion is crucial when we are shown the suffering of others. We all seek connection but sometimes we’re unable to grasp it because of our protective armour, and our conditioning. Perhaps the task is to approach even clumsy attempts to connect with patience and gentleness in ourselves, and others.
The collection ends with Elena, attempting to homestead in her coastal community. The eddies of past, short relationships behind her, she now finds connection to the land, the soil, and the compost she nurtures. She is sympathetic and straightforward, even in her tentative shepherding of the land. She’s not unscathed, but she’s hopeful.
“She’ll have to rebuild the raised beds, reseed the lawn. She’s so tired of starting over again and again and again. Only the compost heap is undisturbed. She jabs the pitchfork into the pile and turns the soil. Something has changed–the chemistry has shifted, and dozens and dozens of worms have somehow found their way here, tunnelling in the darkness, consuming the walls, revelling in the decay.
That’s a good sign, Elena thinks. Something will grow in this.”
Read
August 29, 2023absolutely outstanding. nothing but respect for the audacity of publishing a story collection that's actually five novellas. setting so vivid it verged on repulsive, unabashedly sexual, dry and confrontational about mental illness, a crash course in characterization that should be required reading for contemporary literary fiction authors. andrea routley poet laureate of the dirtbag loser middle-aged lesbian
November 28, 2022
|| THIS UNLIKELY SOIL ||
✍🏻
I fell hard for this collection! It was not only well written but exquisitely imagined and Routley's prose are richly descriptive and humorous. I was first drawn to this book because of its mesmerizing cover and the backdrop of the West Coast but quickly became submerged in the the characters. Routley focuses on the messiness of living, self-consciousness, love, relationships, heterosexual society, and modern living while tethering to the spectacles of the natural world. Each novella is uniquely done yet loosely interconnected to the rest and all possess the ability to conjure strong emotions in the reader. This collection is one I wont soon forget! Looking forward to more from this author.
Many thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
✍🏻
I fell hard for this collection! It was not only well written but exquisitely imagined and Routley's prose are richly descriptive and humorous. I was first drawn to this book because of its mesmerizing cover and the backdrop of the West Coast but quickly became submerged in the the characters. Routley focuses on the messiness of living, self-consciousness, love, relationships, heterosexual society, and modern living while tethering to the spectacles of the natural world. Each novella is uniquely done yet loosely interconnected to the rest and all possess the ability to conjure strong emotions in the reader. This collection is one I wont soon forget! Looking forward to more from this author.
Many thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
November 4, 2022
"I don't understand how words can change a body. This flower is a weed. This tree is dead. This songbird is invasive. Beautiful music. [...]. How can I ever believe I am anything solid when my body is again poured into some new shape, beautiful or cute or cruel or dangerous."
What an amazing book! This Unlikely Soil by Andrea Routley is a collection of short stories about contemporary queer women, exploring how they navigate relationships, love, life, homophobia, a pervasive heterosexual society, and their own insecurities. What I most liked about this book was all the different perspectives. We see what it's like for women who have been openly queer for a long time but also what it's like for women only coming into their queerness either recently or later in life. Each experience is valid but Routley does an amazing job of demonstrating the implications of each scenario.
Each short story is so unique and I found myself describing each of them with one word of how it made me feel:
1. Appropriate Behaviour - Lonely.
2. Damage - Suffocated.
3. Guided Walk - Longing.
4. Midden - Different.
5. This Unlikely Soil - Uncomfortable.
I love how each story was able to make me feel such strong emotions. I really felt for the characters and related to their thought processes, especially when it came to insecurities. My favourite story was Guided Walk. I loved the symbolism of the bear and Carol's personality was so cute!
This book is a definite must-read! Thank you Caitlin Press and Dagger Editions for sending me a copy in exchange for a review! This Unlikely Soil will stick with me for a long time.
What an amazing book! This Unlikely Soil by Andrea Routley is a collection of short stories about contemporary queer women, exploring how they navigate relationships, love, life, homophobia, a pervasive heterosexual society, and their own insecurities. What I most liked about this book was all the different perspectives. We see what it's like for women who have been openly queer for a long time but also what it's like for women only coming into their queerness either recently or later in life. Each experience is valid but Routley does an amazing job of demonstrating the implications of each scenario.
Each short story is so unique and I found myself describing each of them with one word of how it made me feel:
1. Appropriate Behaviour - Lonely.
2. Damage - Suffocated.
3. Guided Walk - Longing.
4. Midden - Different.
5. This Unlikely Soil - Uncomfortable.
I love how each story was able to make me feel such strong emotions. I really felt for the characters and related to their thought processes, especially when it came to insecurities. My favourite story was Guided Walk. I loved the symbolism of the bear and Carol's personality was so cute!
This book is a definite must-read! Thank you Caitlin Press and Dagger Editions for sending me a copy in exchange for a review! This Unlikely Soil will stick with me for a long time.
June 23, 2023
This Unlikely Soil by Andrea Routley is a lovely novel that shines a spotlight on the lives of queer women on the West Coast (BC, Canada).
Set in a small rural community, the book explores the unique challenges and triumphs faced by its LGBTQ+ characters, capturing their experiences with authenticity and sensitivity. Routley's writing beautifully captures the landscapes of the region, immersing readers in the lush surroundings and creating a vivid backdrop for the characters' stories. The portrayal of queer relationships and identities is nuanced and refreshing, offering a heartfelt and genuine story.
Characters like Freddie, Miriam, Rita, Naomi, and Elana are all such intensely human characters. It was amazing to cringe along with them, laugh with them, and truly feel for them throughout these short stories.
"A bear with a hemorrhoid, a berried-up Dungeness crab, a perimeter of slugs... this dense coastal landscape does not simply mirror the characters’ lives but shapes them. While characters often embody painful histories and cringe-worthy decision-making skills, the stories are full of humour and love."
Definitely worth checking out!
Set in a small rural community, the book explores the unique challenges and triumphs faced by its LGBTQ+ characters, capturing their experiences with authenticity and sensitivity. Routley's writing beautifully captures the landscapes of the region, immersing readers in the lush surroundings and creating a vivid backdrop for the characters' stories. The portrayal of queer relationships and identities is nuanced and refreshing, offering a heartfelt and genuine story.
Characters like Freddie, Miriam, Rita, Naomi, and Elana are all such intensely human characters. It was amazing to cringe along with them, laugh with them, and truly feel for them throughout these short stories.
"A bear with a hemorrhoid, a berried-up Dungeness crab, a perimeter of slugs... this dense coastal landscape does not simply mirror the characters’ lives but shapes them. While characters often embody painful histories and cringe-worthy decision-making skills, the stories are full of humour and love."
Definitely worth checking out!
May 20, 2024
With a title like that, I unexpected something soulful and poetic, but this wasn't the case. The characters are unlikable on purpose (clueless, petty, hypocritical, duplicitous, cruel, etc.), but not in a compelling way--I felt annoyed without insight, irritated without a worthwhile tradeoff. The role of the environment in these stories is also trite and surface-level, which I think is a deliberate meta commentary on the culture, but without any real reverence towards either people or nature, I couldn't find anything to enjoy in these stories. If you're looking for a queer book, this might not be it; it seems targeted to an old-school lesbian demographic in a wounded way that wants to be funny and raw but feels crass and sad.
June 12, 2023
3.5*
I was a bit torn on this one - some of the stories were excellent, while others weren't quite as strong. I liked the loose connection formed between the stories. I find that often by the end of a collection, I've forgotten the first couple stories, but Routley's connections made it easier to mentally revisit other stories. The titular story in particular, stood out to me. It really created a strong ending for the book.
I was a bit torn on this one - some of the stories were excellent, while others weren't quite as strong. I liked the loose connection formed between the stories. I find that often by the end of a collection, I've forgotten the first couple stories, but Routley's connections made it easier to mentally revisit other stories. The titular story in particular, stood out to me. It really created a strong ending for the book.
August 28, 2024
I wish this collection included 50 stories. Short stories haven't generally been my go-to, but this collection has changed that. The characters are unforgettable—every last one of them.
Weird details (geoduck!!), endless complexities, a sudden unexpected, unconventional narrator, absolutely acing queer contemporary without a speck of triteness: This Unlikely Soil is a mesmerizing coral reef of a short-story collection. Highly recommend.
Weird details (geoduck!!), endless complexities, a sudden unexpected, unconventional narrator, absolutely acing queer contemporary without a speck of triteness: This Unlikely Soil is a mesmerizing coral reef of a short-story collection. Highly recommend.
July 2, 2023
Okay the writing was good but the format just wasn't for me? I thought I'd try the novellas but it wasn't for me right now. Maybe I'll try again.
January 7, 2023
Thank you to the publisher, Caitlin Press, for the gifted copy of this book!
This novella collection explores the lives and loves of queer women in the Pacific Northwest living in more rural surroundings. There are five stories total, each rooted in the experiences of the characters.
These characters are all flawed, painfully human, and not always likeable. You can feel their insecurities flow off the pages. Loneliness, miscommunication, connection, personal responsibility, change, and self-discovery in all their messy forms can be seen. There are elements of attempted suicide, partner abuse, cheating, and homophobia.
Although at times I cringed at some character decisions, I feel this shows just how relatable the stories are. And there's a fair amount of hope showing that even if we screw up terribly or are not at a good point in our lives, there is hope that we can keep trying and keep living.
If you like reading about messy queer people being messy and so very human, I would recommend this!
This novella collection explores the lives and loves of queer women in the Pacific Northwest living in more rural surroundings. There are five stories total, each rooted in the experiences of the characters.
These characters are all flawed, painfully human, and not always likeable. You can feel their insecurities flow off the pages. Loneliness, miscommunication, connection, personal responsibility, change, and self-discovery in all their messy forms can be seen. There are elements of attempted suicide, partner abuse, cheating, and homophobia.
Although at times I cringed at some character decisions, I feel this shows just how relatable the stories are. And there's a fair amount of hope showing that even if we screw up terribly or are not at a good point in our lives, there is hope that we can keep trying and keep living.
If you like reading about messy queer people being messy and so very human, I would recommend this!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews