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A review by chrissie_whitley
Terrace Story: A Novel by Hilary Leichter
5.0
Terrace Story contains four mesmerizing interconnected stories about the transitory nature of existence and the ways in which people do or don't take up space in our lives. This was a sprawling split-level of vignettes, each offering a different way of expressing the passage of time and the ways in which we fill our lives with longing and aloneness or love and connection. Leichter plays with beginnings and endings, expanding and contracting the stories but never losing the connective tissue.
In the first story, Terrace, we meet a man, a woman, and their baby. One day, when the woman’s co-worker visits, they discover a heretofore unknown terrace just adjacent to a closet. But the terrace only seems to appear when the co-worker comes over. The terrace visits are filled with wonder and a sense of timelessness, but all that joy and delight leave room for cracks in the façade, and tensions start to simmer.
Folly, the second story, introduces a couple expecting a child. Time passes differently in this story; the woman, who was pregnant at the beginning, now has a child. She writes about extinctions, while the man works as a professor. Leichter continues her exploration of time and space with contradictions like: "Their home was too big when they desired each other and too small when they were fighting. It was never the right size. It was wrong in both directions." Interwoven with their story is a fairytale about a king, a queen, and a hermit, adding layers to this tapestry of a tale.
The third story, Fortress, follows a young girl who discovers her ability to stretch the space of things around her. As the most direct link to magical realism, it explores how she loses herself by defining her identity through this power and the perceptions of others. She can take up as much space as she wants, yet remains standing behind a wall that separates her from everyone else.
Cantilever, the final story, hanging out over the edge by way of being set on a space station. A young woman, typically tasked with keeping the suburb in orbit, takes an extra shift interviewing hopeful homesteaders for relocation. When an older woman enters for her interview, a new thread of connection begins to form and solidify.
The stories are fluid — sharp and focused in the moment, but their wisps feather out and flex away with such assuredness that you don’t realize they’re forming an entire picture until it’s there. There’s a lightness and elasticity in Leichter’s writing that mimic the same qualities in humanity. I was in love with these stories before I even realized it.
In the first story, Terrace, we meet a man, a woman, and their baby. One day, when the woman’s co-worker visits, they discover a heretofore unknown terrace just adjacent to a closet. But the terrace only seems to appear when the co-worker comes over. The terrace visits are filled with wonder and a sense of timelessness, but all that joy and delight leave room for cracks in the façade, and tensions start to simmer.
Folly, the second story, introduces a couple expecting a child. Time passes differently in this story; the woman, who was pregnant at the beginning, now has a child. She writes about extinctions, while the man works as a professor. Leichter continues her exploration of time and space with contradictions like: "Their home was too big when they desired each other and too small when they were fighting. It was never the right size. It was wrong in both directions." Interwoven with their story is a fairytale about a king, a queen, and a hermit, adding layers to this tapestry of a tale.
The third story, Fortress, follows a young girl who discovers her ability to stretch the space of things around her. As the most direct link to magical realism, it explores how she loses herself by defining her identity through this power and the perceptions of others. She can take up as much space as she wants, yet remains standing behind a wall that separates her from everyone else.
Cantilever, the final story, hanging out over the edge by way of being set on a space station. A young woman, typically tasked with keeping the suburb in orbit, takes an extra shift interviewing hopeful homesteaders for relocation. When an older woman enters for her interview, a new thread of connection begins to form and solidify.
The stories are fluid — sharp and focused in the moment, but their wisps feather out and flex away with such assuredness that you don’t realize they’re forming an entire picture until it’s there. There’s a lightness and elasticity in Leichter’s writing that mimic the same qualities in humanity. I was in love with these stories before I even realized it.