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A review by brice_mo
Coexistence: Stories by Billy-Ray Belcourt
4.75
Thanks to Edelweiss & W.W. Norton for the ARC!
Billy-Ray Belcourt’s Coexistence sees the poet move gracefully to short-form fiction, comfortably unbothered by the complexities of identity and all of its multiplicities and contradictions. These aren’t short stories as much as they are momentary portraits of people at a crossroads.
The book’s title is apt, as every character attempts to figure out what it means to share the world. There’s a recurring discomfort with how to navigate the relationship between selfhood and collective identity, a theme Belcourt draws attention to by having characters explicitly interrogate the notion of the “I,” wrestling with what it means to be an archive of all their past selves.
If that sounds esoteric, it’s not because these stories are ultimately about intimacy in all its forms—characters constantly reach out or retreat in pursuit of sex, companionship, or whatever feels most like love. These stories depict people fumbling for connection through language or just beyond its borders, and Belcourt is so thoughtful about how these desires are nuanced and shaped by the realities of indigenous identity, whether in the form of fetishizing hookups or political abuses. Even so, Belcourt refuses to define his stories by the undertow of violence, opting instead for an undercurrent of gentleness.
The book is brief, but the first few pages make the reason for its brevity abundantly clear—Belcourt treats each sentence with the same attention he brings to his poetry, and these stories feel like a place to spend and suspend time. They are populated with the odd and insignificant details that comprise memory, all of the fragments that are difficult to shape into words. Belcourt’s voice and preoccupations are distinctive, but if I had to make a comparison, Coexistence shares the tenderness seen in Ocean Vuong’s work. As a qualifier to my praise, these stories are deeply engaged with academic conversations, and while I found them approachable, it’s possible that some readers will interpret specific sections as digressive or too “heady.”
I don’t know if Billy-Ray Belcourt is working on another full-length novel, but Coexistence makes me hope that’s the case. With its rich thematic continuity, adept narrative structure, and gorgeous language, it’s a signal of great things to come.
Billy-Ray Belcourt’s Coexistence sees the poet move gracefully to short-form fiction, comfortably unbothered by the complexities of identity and all of its multiplicities and contradictions. These aren’t short stories as much as they are momentary portraits of people at a crossroads.
The book’s title is apt, as every character attempts to figure out what it means to share the world. There’s a recurring discomfort with how to navigate the relationship between selfhood and collective identity, a theme Belcourt draws attention to by having characters explicitly interrogate the notion of the “I,” wrestling with what it means to be an archive of all their past selves.
If that sounds esoteric, it’s not because these stories are ultimately about intimacy in all its forms—characters constantly reach out or retreat in pursuit of sex, companionship, or whatever feels most like love. These stories depict people fumbling for connection through language or just beyond its borders, and Belcourt is so thoughtful about how these desires are nuanced and shaped by the realities of indigenous identity, whether in the form of fetishizing hookups or political abuses. Even so, Belcourt refuses to define his stories by the undertow of violence, opting instead for an undercurrent of gentleness.
The book is brief, but the first few pages make the reason for its brevity abundantly clear—Belcourt treats each sentence with the same attention he brings to his poetry, and these stories feel like a place to spend and suspend time. They are populated with the odd and insignificant details that comprise memory, all of the fragments that are difficult to shape into words. Belcourt’s voice and preoccupations are distinctive, but if I had to make a comparison, Coexistence shares the tenderness seen in Ocean Vuong’s work. As a qualifier to my praise, these stories are deeply engaged with academic conversations, and while I found them approachable, it’s possible that some readers will interpret specific sections as digressive or too “heady.”
I don’t know if Billy-Ray Belcourt is working on another full-length novel, but Coexistence makes me hope that’s the case. With its rich thematic continuity, adept narrative structure, and gorgeous language, it’s a signal of great things to come.