Compression Scars

by Kellie Wells

The eleven stories in Kellie Wells's debut collection cover a wide range of eccentric characters--from a young girl experiencing her friend's strange demise to a set of opposite-sex conjoined twins. Forced to deal with the debilitating confines of the physical world--usually manifest in some kind of deformity or affliction, from compression scars to mysterious blue skin--Wells's characters struggle to transcend their existential disappointments and find some way and someone to love.In the title story, Ivy and her best friend Duncan struggle to understand their mortality as Ivy learns of his potentially fatal internal scarring caused by a moped accident. As Ivy says, "Things can get so strange so fast," and they frequently do in Wells's stories. But Ivy and Duncan help each other escape their frightening, difficult world, if only momentarily, through imagination, good humor, and closeness.

"Godlight" addresses most specifically the questions that are evident in all the stories: Do you believe in God, and do you believe in reincarnation? Jonas, the Hyatt Regency Hotel's live-in light bulb replacement man, encounters two different characters--a child who lives in the hotel and a woman who claims that her identity has been altered for the Witness Protection Program--who ponder these questions. Meanwhile, Jonas is left wondering what has really become of his missing daughter, Emma.

The physical world is brought into question frequently in this collection, and in "My Guardian, Claire," we see what can happen when someone tries to transcend it--and succeeds. During a séance to reach the narrator's late mother, Claire reaches the spirit world and never truly returns. The narrator tries desperately to retrieve Claire through a hilarious trip to the Exotic Animal Drive-Thru Paradise.

Compression Scars is an eloquent and original collection that vibrantly captures the oddities of both the everyday and the out-of-this-world.

Genres: Short Stories

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2002

Reviews

[Meg Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kellie Wells never ceases to amaze me! Her work is brilliant and inimitable! The language and the characters are exquisite and her statements on life are vast and unique! I am a fan for life!
Quotes:
"I lived knowing I made myself up. You dreamt I was real. The story ends here where I am a hole you look into to see yourself. Because I am nothing, I can make you believe."
"...a braid of bodies across the continent spelling out, with twisted limbs, a language I hoped my country would not have to speak."
"bodies quaking and rolling like coins in the Sunday plate."
"The summer the bats came, Duncan began wearing blue and my breasts grew a whole cup size as I were feeding them better."
"My mother says I had the airy beauty of something fleeting, features smeared hastily across a face soon to expire, and I waved my arms about in what seemed to her the hurried delight of a short lifespan."
"It's always the heart, isn't it, even when it's not?"
No question why this won The Flannery O'Connor award that year! LOVE!

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and original, this is a book you do not want to miss! All of the stories in this unusual collection made me wish I wrote them!

[Tali Zarate · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this collection of short stories, Wells exhibits a stunning mastery over language. Every word of every sentence is penned with complete and utter control. And this is important, because Wells pushes and pulls at language, stretching and bunching it in bizarre and surprising ways. For example: “On nights when the moon spills through my window and covers my bare legs, spreads up my abdomen like infection, I watch the cells of my body cleave neatly at the perforations and swarm above me like silver bees” (85).

[Margaret Sefton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most mind blowing short stories. Kellie is one of the most intelligent, creative writers working today. I love short stories in general so I hold this dear.

[Tim Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kellie Wells is an impressive wordsmith. Though a few of the stories in this collection were slightly too nebulous and dreamy in their plotting, they were all inspiring since even in her weaker stories, Kellie can craft such beautiful scenarios. Here's what I mean: "Alison stares at her mother's tanned forearms, the fine white mist of hair that covers them. She wonders what she was doing at the time her mother was cultivating this tan, at the time bursts of melanin were blooming beneath her mother's skin. In math class, she thinks, examining the even beauty of an isosceles triangle or drawing huge dinosaur humps with the inside of her protractor, not even considering the fact that someone she knew was lying on a lawn chair somewhere, drinking sun tea, listening to a top forty countdown, and absorbing the color-altering heat of the sun. Alison is amazed how so much can happen without your knowledge, leaving you with only aftereffects and inferences" (105-106). Wells' tales are not climactic, action-packed plots. On the exterior, not a whole lot happens. But the stories are so imaginative and large-hearted. My favorites: "Sherman and the Swan," "Godlight," and "A. Wonderland."

[Megsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I wanted to give this book three stars but didn't allow myself to because Pete gave it 5 so there must be something I'm missing. It's the type of fiction where everything is boiling hot and fucked up and non sequitur, which is a style that drives me BONKERS. It's like a series of stories woven only out of adolescent feelings -- super intense, super scattered, sometimes very creepy. My favorite story was Sherman and the Swan.

[Kipp Wessel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite writers. Prose so luminous, it should be constructed with Lite-Brite pegs and cathode electrical discharge tubes rather than inked font on paper fiber. Sherman the Swan is one of my favorite short stories in all the world. (It's the eighth story in this collection - but you'll want to read all eleven - each one an opalescent beauty.)

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

this writing exudes actual heat, like fever heat. it is literally the opposite of a beach read, like freaky witchy forest read. it took me a while to get through, just because of the intense, almost suffocating imagery and emotion in every story. not for everybody -- it's a little creepy in places -- but masterful.

[Katie Wudel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the title story! Thought the rest were well-written, but seemed not nearly as deeply felt by the author. The story about the conjoined twins was cool in theory, but as a reader, I simply was not engaged. Can't wait to read Kellie's next book, though.

[Sara]

flannery o'connor award for short fiction