The Art of Forgiveness by Chris Benjamin

A Short Fiction Review by Ian Colford

Four years after his wonderfully gritty short fiction collection, Boy with a Problem, Chris Benjamin returns with The Art of Forgiveness, which includes eight equally gritty stories of youthful male angst populated by characters struggling to prove their worth and cross the threshold from boyhood into manhood. The stories are set primarily in suburban Halifax and involve broken families, unrequited lust, distracted parents and a dangerous subculture of drugs and violence.

The collection is divided into three sections named for the character central to those stories. In the first section, Gerry is an earnest, socially awkward, artistically inclined teen searching for ways to fit in while reeling from the sudden death of his mother and living with an emotionally distant father who seems unable to cope. The two stories in the second section focus on Long (real name: Juan Jaime), the son of Korean immigrants, who, to augment his family’s income, sells drugs. And in the third section Drew takes part in a schoolyard brawl, comforts his friend Gerry who as Christmas approaches is missing his mother, and bravely risks humiliation by trying his hand at stand-up comedy.

None of Benjamin’s characters have an easy time of it. Indeed, for all of them, the lemonade stands and carefree summer afternoons of childhood are long gone, and life has turned deadly serious. To test his mettle and numb himself to his losses, Gerry has taken up boxing. He’s not much good at it and gets clobbered on a regular basis, but he goes back for more because “Sometimes the pain could be oxygen.” Long wants to kill his ruthless drug boss, Kang-Dae, who, he is certain, ordered a hit on Long’s father, who was found shot to death near a drug dealer’s apartment. But there’s no proof that Kang-Dae did any such thing, and Long’s plan goes awry because his rage is unfocused, and he feels trapped in a world not of his making. And in the final three stories, Drew’s steadiness and reliability make him a go-to for friends and family in times of crisis, but after his father suffers a stroke, it is Drew who finds himself in need of comforting.

Chris Benjamin’s mode of writing is raw, unvarnished, heartrending dirty realism. His characters are tormented youngsters left to navigate the fallout from family tragedy on their own while struggling to locate a moral compass to guide them through the emotional minefield of adolescence. The Art of Forgiveness is heady stuff, a careening ride without guardrails through chaotic lives. The dramas enacted in this slim volume are often brutal and to varying degrees, everyone ends up bruised and bloodied. But nobody ever said lessons in the art of forgiveness would be painless.

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About the Author

Chris Benjamin is the author of five previous books including his recent hitchhiking memoir, Chasing Paradise: A Hitchhiker's Search for Home in a World at War With Itself. His earlier short-story collection, Boy With A Problem, was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction. He is the former editor of Atlantic Books Today magazine and currently works as Senior Energy Coordinator with Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada.

About the Reviewer

Ian Colford was born, raised and educated in Halifax. His reviews and stories have appeared in many print and online publications. He is the author of two collections of short fiction and two novels and is the recipient of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Evidence.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Galleon Books (July 15 2024)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1998122107

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1998122103