Eyehill

by Kelly Cooper

A remarkable debut collection, Kelly Cooper's Eyehill provides a multi-hued portrait of a small prairie town. Too small to support a high school or a drugstore, Eyehill is populated by men and women who have worked for generations to wrest a living from the dry, rolling hills. Like people anywhere else, they hunger for love, understanding, a decent living, and safety and comfort in their homes. Their passion for something more, something better, is tangled by their almost visceral attachment to the land and by the dangerous allure of an oil industry that grows more rapacious every year. In this startling debut collection of loosely linked stories, characters disappear only to resurface once again a few stories later. Among the central characters are Rhea, a girl whose mother abandoned her and her father when she was three and who grows to adulthood full of questions and contradictions; Jarvis, a boy whom Rhea loves but wants as a boyfriend only when he has to marry his pregnant girlfriend; and the Lalonde brothers, so different and yet so clearly formed by their shared circumstances. A strange eroticism pervades "They Secretly Pray for Rain." A subtle, mostly denied violence underlies "Very Little Blood," but it percolates to the surface in the terrible climax of "River Judith." The ancient aquifer flowing below the prairie pulses through the very marrow of the men's bones. Farming is not what they do, but what they are, and interference is fatal. In this small, tightly knit community, secrets are essential. The need to keep silent and to control terrifying emotions is at the same time necessary and ruinous, and the stories people tell hide as much as they reveal.

Genres: Short Stories

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Elizabeth Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Kelly at the Airport as i witnessed an emotional time when her and daughters being split up on a connecting flight. Kelly let the girls go first together and I happened to be seated beside her on the flight to Saskatoon.
We exchanged names with a short introduction and as we were about to lift off I offered my hand a a new friend to comfort her until we got in the air.
I learned why the original connecting flight was missed and why Ms. Cooper was so upset when she shared a personal story.
Kelly shared she authored this book so as soon as I could i downloaded it devouring it in one sitting that night in my hotel room.
I found it small town quirky and funny for the characters in the town that I imagined I have visited through my work.
Delightful and I recommend it to many.
Elizabeth

[Francis-Adrien Morneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a truly enjoyable read, and it resonates with me because I lived in small towns for a big part of my life. It made me think of Elizabeth Strout`s writing. I hope this author writes many more books!

[Spencer Folkins]

This is a treat for anyone who's ever lived in a small town. For those who haven't, Cooper paints an immensely vivid picture. Readers won't want to leave the world of Eyehill. My favourite story was probably The Weaning Season.