First Fiction Fridays: Teardown

* * *Thanks so much to Kelsey at Freehand Books for sharing Teardown with us – we can’t wait to tear into it this Thanksgiving long weekend. For even more debut fiction recommendations, head here.

What: Teardown (Freehand Books, 2016)Who: Clea Young’s stories have appeared in Event, Grain, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire and Room, and have twice been shortlisted for the Journey Prize. Teardown is her first book. Clea is currently Artistic Associate at the Vancouver Writers Fest, and she lives in Vancouver with her husband and son.Why you need to read this now:Teardown, the debut collection from Vancouver writer Clea Young, features twelve stories about relationships – parents and children, friends, siblings, spouses, lovers – and about the tenuous yet tenacious connections between people. From the expectant couple fighting over lamps in IKEA to the woman who encounters an old boyfriend on a BC ferry, these are stories that take a seemingly ordinary, even mundane moment, and then suddenly turn it completely on its head. The emotional stakes are high. And that makes for a delectable collection for the reader: these are satisfying stories to be devoured. Clea Young has the power to evoke strong feelings and memories in her readers, perhaps because her characters seem so much like real, everyday people – like they’re people we’ve met, or people we used to know, or even people who we used to be. They’re dealing with strange bosses and new friends at their first real job, drinking gin and tonics on a dock in summer, unemployed and without prospects. They’re real people who are (sometimes uncomfortably) relatable.Several recurring themes are skilfully woven through the collection. For example, Clea explores many facets of parenthood – from one woman’s uneasy ambivalence toward motherhood, to a faltering married couple coping with the thralls of a demanding toddler, to a father unsure how to handle his suddenly very teenage daughter. She examines the many ways we can betray those we love the most, unwittingly or willlingly, and pays homage to the complicated hearts that comprise a life.In reading a Clea Young story, you are reading about the contemporary world, about something that is happening right now. Neil Smith says that Teardown is “vivid, whip-smart stories about people coping with the perils and pitfalls of modern life,” and Lisa Moore adds that the stories are “ultra-attentive to the way we live now.”And we’ll give Giller finalist Zoe Whittall (The Best Kind of People) the last word: “Clea Young’s intelligent stories sparkle with life… clever and imaginative, an absolutely addictive read.”X plus Y:It’s the rich, emotionally compelling stories of Théodora Armstrong’s Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility meets the precision and skill of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.

* * *Thanks so much to Kelsey at Freehand Books for sharing Teardown with us – we can’t wait to tear into it this Thanksgiving long weekend. For even more debut fiction recommendations, head here.