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Wild: a collection
Wild offers exceptional fiction and reportage, with a coast-dweller's sharp eye for maritime detail, and a humane regard for both the victims and the survivors of shipwrecks, both literal and metaphorical. From 'Prospects', a marvellous, moving reconstruction of the murderous maiden voyage of the Tayleur, to 'Luck is in the Leftovers', a gripping saga of living on the edge of the land, where life and death ebb and flow like the tides. Gill Hoffs' writing, fiction and non, swells with the power of life, sometimes life at the expense of other lives, but always animated and alive. This is visceral and vital prose, smooth as a sea-worn pebble yet sharp as sharks' teeth. - Ronnie Scott, author of Death by Design and editor of 'Tommy's War', 'Tommy's Peace' and 'The Real 'Dads' Army
146 pages, Paperback
First published June 12, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 25, 2018
Wild is an apt name for this collection: A seagull wreathed in seaweed; snow dancing and swirling over a vanishing road; a misting drizzle over the moor; fingers dipping in and out of rainbow'd bellies as a girl guts a mackerel, and the smell of wet dog and damp footprints. Gill Hoffs has a way with the little things, the tiny almost inconsequential details that, when she puts them to paper, bear the weight of the world.
"My sobs attracted strong shoulders to cry on, smells of maleness and sweat. The straw prickled and itched against my thighs and back."
Because of this, I fell in love with her work back when I was the fiction editor for a small literary magazine. While most of the stories are macabre in nature, each is full of hope and love in a way that only the soft infinite agony death can impress upon us. I think my favorite in this collection is The Rabbit and The Dam, which had me sobbing at the end. The way Ms. Hoffs can capture the history of a place or a person cast into shadow is quite stunning, and this is a marvelous collection of stunning slivers of dark, some fiction, some not.
"My sobs attracted strong shoulders to cry on, smells of maleness and sweat. The straw prickled and itched against my thighs and back."
Because of this, I fell in love with her work back when I was the fiction editor for a small literary magazine. While most of the stories are macabre in nature, each is full of hope and love in a way that only the soft infinite agony death can impress upon us. I think my favorite in this collection is The Rabbit and The Dam, which had me sobbing at the end. The way Ms. Hoffs can capture the history of a place or a person cast into shadow is quite stunning, and this is a marvelous collection of stunning slivers of dark, some fiction, some not.
June 17, 2012
In my blurb for this book, I said: "In her tales, Gill Hoff’s unique voice has tamed the wild creating narratives of raw beauty. When I put the book down, I could taste the salt of the green sea on my tongue." For this mini-review, I'd like to add that there's a sweetness here, not just sea salt, which is rather rare these days. Fear and bitterness sells so much better. But Gill's sweetness is of an even rarer kind: it's not sentimental, soccer-mom sweetness, but it's gritty. Gill has gargled with sugar water, spat it out and written well. In this collection, you'll find non-fiction pieces, too which reveal some of the roots of the tales, and the first chapter of her debut novel, The Perfection Of Ten, which begins thus: «The first thing Jericho Comstock did was grab the hemp rope coiled like an ammonite by his feet and jump. Jump high. Jump clear of the towering bulk of the sperm whale’s flukes as it crushed the craft and crew that killed it.» I don't want to analyze this bit to death, but the lyrical tension held here makes me think we're waiting for a winner here. Such a good book.
August 5, 2012
The train journey from Glasgow Central to Dalreoch train station takes forty four minutes, including a change at Partick. Just enough time to put on some music and make a start on ‘Wild’…
Hoffs wields words like an artist holds a pallet, using them boldly to fill our imagination with vivid colours and smells and sounds and smells. From seaside caverns to a sail on a whale, the image is as clear as day in my mind as my eyes race across the page keeping pace with the picture she paints.
Four train stops later and my Ipod is off. I realise now something special is happening, my Ipod is never off. I am halfway through ‘The Rabbit and the Dam’ my finger poised to turn the page as I sit on the edge of my seat not knowing by the end of this tale there will be tears in my eyes.
Like a true master of her craft Hoffs grabs hold of the reader from the first word on the first page and doesn’t let go until long after they have finished reading her stories. Her ability to convey human emotion is unmatched and truly touches the reader in a way few authors can achieve.
I missed my stop. Blissfully unaware I was travelling towards the end of the line, forty-four minutes became ninety-seven. I wasn’t upset, I got to finish reading ‘Wild’
Watch this space…until then, buy ‘Wild’
Hoffs wields words like an artist holds a pallet, using them boldly to fill our imagination with vivid colours and smells and sounds and smells. From seaside caverns to a sail on a whale, the image is as clear as day in my mind as my eyes race across the page keeping pace with the picture she paints.
Four train stops later and my Ipod is off. I realise now something special is happening, my Ipod is never off. I am halfway through ‘The Rabbit and the Dam’ my finger poised to turn the page as I sit on the edge of my seat not knowing by the end of this tale there will be tears in my eyes.
Like a true master of her craft Hoffs grabs hold of the reader from the first word on the first page and doesn’t let go until long after they have finished reading her stories. Her ability to convey human emotion is unmatched and truly touches the reader in a way few authors can achieve.
I missed my stop. Blissfully unaware I was travelling towards the end of the line, forty-four minutes became ninety-seven. I wasn’t upset, I got to finish reading ‘Wild’
Watch this space…until then, buy ‘Wild’
July 13, 2012
Wild is a collection that is full of the aroma of the sea, the theme runs through almost all the stories, and when it doesn't, that title, the wildness still infuses everything. This collection of fiction and non-fiction is so enjoyable and heartfelt, the tales brim over with humanity and with detail, they are so vivid it is impossible not to realise how much work the author has put into researching them. This is particularly apparent when you read the non-fiction pieces, especially the closing story, Prospects, an enthralling account of the sinking of the RMS Tayleur off of the coast of Ireland. The Titanic of its day, Gill's writing of this tragedy focuses, like all her writing, on the human aspect, on the cost to those real people involved.
My personal favourite story is the opener, Firework Sand, I loved it when I first read it in Spilling Ink Review, and I was so glad that it made it to the collection. It's a powerful, sad, but beautiful story, with just a hint of the fantastical, the magical, something which does tend to creep into Gill's work, making her writing very special and exciting.
My personal favourite story is the opener, Firework Sand, I loved it when I first read it in Spilling Ink Review, and I was so glad that it made it to the collection. It's a powerful, sad, but beautiful story, with just a hint of the fantastical, the magical, something which does tend to creep into Gill's work, making her writing very special and exciting.
July 19, 2013
This is an absolutely wonderful collection of short stories, both fiction and nonfiction. The writing is crisp, rhythmic, and very much in line with tantalizing the senses. Gill Hoffs' descriptions of the sounds and aromas of her environments are top-notch. I haven't often felt the salty sea air on my skin as I've read a short story, but Hoffs knows exactly how to evoke a moody, dead-on descriptive vibe with a pulse running through it.
Her characters also evoke this realism, and I found myself absolutely enthralled with them, worrying about them, hoping, praying, pleading that the hand of Fate plucks them for safety. That said, Gill kept me riveted, and when I finished each story, I had to sit back and reflect, let the tension wash off and the sounds of the ocean, frequently the backdrop of many of her stories, calm me down.
These are fantastic stories, some of the best I've read in a long time, and I feel they're a must for people looking for good, solid literature. I'll be re-reading these again, particularly the last two nonfiction pieces "Black Fish" and "Prospects".
Her characters also evoke this realism, and I found myself absolutely enthralled with them, worrying about them, hoping, praying, pleading that the hand of Fate plucks them for safety. That said, Gill kept me riveted, and when I finished each story, I had to sit back and reflect, let the tension wash off and the sounds of the ocean, frequently the backdrop of many of her stories, calm me down.
These are fantastic stories, some of the best I've read in a long time, and I feel they're a must for people looking for good, solid literature. I'll be re-reading these again, particularly the last two nonfiction pieces "Black Fish" and "Prospects".
July 8, 2012
just finished reading Wild, and must say i thoroughly enjoyed it. Not that i'm qualified to comment but author has a nice easily readable style and i could almost feel the salt in the air!
The Rabbit and the Dam was worth extra mention, its a story that will stay with you and i can perhaps see it made into a film, maybe by Hammer House, along lines of the recent Woman in Black.
The Rabbit and the Dam was worth extra mention, its a story that will stay with you and i can perhaps see it made into a film, maybe by Hammer House, along lines of the recent Woman in Black.
October 4, 2012
A collection of short stories and non-fiction that brings the reader to the sea, to wild Scotland.
Hoffs' prose is salty, rocky and storm-blown: a right and memorable voice that grabs the reader and does not let go.
Hoffs' prose is salty, rocky and storm-blown: a right and memorable voice that grabs the reader and does not let go.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews