Debris

by Kevin Hardcastle

Finalist for the 2016 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

Nominated for the 2015 Danuta Gleed Literary Award

One of Quill & Quire’s Books of the Year, 2015

One of 49th Shelf's Books of the Year, 2015

The eleven remarkable stories in Kevin Hardcastle’s debut Debris introduce an authentic new voice. Written in a lean and muscular style and brimming with both violence and compassion, these stories unflinchingly explore the lives of those — MMA fighters, the institutionalized, small-town criminals — who exist on the fringes of society, unveiling the blood and guts and beauty of life in our flyover regions.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2015

About the author

Kevin Hardcastle is a fiction writer from Simcoe County, Ontario. He studied writing at the University of Toronto and at Cardiff University.

Hardcastle’s debut collection, Debris, won the Trillium Book Award, the ReLit Award for Short Fiction, runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary award, and was a finalist for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Debris was named a Quill & Quire book of the year.

His novel, In the Cage, was released to wide acclaim in fall 2017. It was named a Globe & Mail and National Post book of the year. In summer/fall 2018, the French language translation, Dans la Cage, was published by Éditions Albin Michel. In summer 2019, the German language translation was published by Polar Verlag.

Hardcastle was a finalist for the 24th annual Journey Prize in 2012, and his short stories have been widely published in Canada and the US, and anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories 24 & 26, Best Canadian Stories 15, and Internazionale.

Find Hardcastle here:
https://twitter.com/KHardcase
https://kevinmhardcastle.com/
https://instagram.com/khardcase/

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded up because we can get a new homepage that nobody wanted but still can't have half-stars

My review of DEBRIS is up at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud for your amusement and edification. One day next week, I'll post the whole thing here for y'all clickophobes.

This 4.5-star debut story collection by Kevin Hardcastle won the 2016 Trillium Prize...$20,000! I must thank Biblioasis for sending me a review copy, and introducing me to another top-flight CanLit author to follow.

[Kris Bertin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you like careful, measured prose? Do you like literary fiction but find that it doesn't have enough raw violence for you? Do you like stunning descriptions of inhospitable landscapes and back country roads? Do you like Cormac McCarthy? Do you like lawlessness, poverty, and low-level criminality? Do you prefer calling shotguns 'scatterguns'? If so, this is the right book for you.

Hardcastle is a new heavyweight contender in Canadian fiction, with a body of work that was born in bred in our nations backwaters, border towns, and everywhere polite readers are afraid to tread. Written in a style that's decidedly terse, intentionally plain and sure-footed, the stories of Debris concern themselves with visceral human emotion and deep-rooted, timeless conflicts. Through eleven captivating stories about parent and child, lawman and criminal, man and woman, champions and contenders, Hardcastle paints a precise portrait of people trapped inside themselves and by their circumstances, often crippled by weaknesses masquerading as strength. A phenomenal debut.

5/5

KRIS BERTIN

[Lisa Nikolits · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had high expectations of a book endorsed by John Irving. I was not disappointed. This collection of short stories is addictive and gritty reading, superbly crafted and grounded in compassion and understanding for the unlucky whose lives are chipped and broken. Reading these stories is like walking a tightrope laced with a hidden electrical charge, you’re waiting for the voltage to flash through your system and dismay you, but then, there is something in the distance that beckons with hope.

[Adam Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

My butt is sore from the kicking this collection gave it. Really strong, exciting stories with some bone-crunchingly vivid description. Perhaps a bit of repetition of the young-man-trying-and-failing-to-avoid-violence mode, but really terrific story by story, page by page, sentence by sentence. You can find "Montana Border" on the Walrus website here (http://thewalrus.ca/montana-border/) as a sampler, but there are a good half-dozen stories here just as good.

[Jean-marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend of mine just recently returned from a work-related sojourn in the mountainous interior of British Columbia. This is a burly fellow; a man very fond of physical labour and challenges, and one who enjoys drinking and carousing around more than most city folk do. He told me though that out there he found the "hardest" men he had ever met, and that he often couldn't keep up with them, and that the whole experience was a little bit humbling. Knowing what sort of things this friend of mine is capable of, I was impressed.

And this book, coincidentally, is all about hard men living out west. hard living, hard drinking, fighting, muscled masculinity. There's a bit of an eye-for-an-eye mentality expressed in many of these stories, though it's sometimes tempered with a hint of doubt, or sadness. Indeed, the very first story, "Old Man marchuk", depicts an old man chasing after and attempting to kill some guys who were out to rob him, and there's no doubt that the police protagonist in the tale thinks the retaliation outweighs the initial crime. But we have a sense of grim justice pervading the lives of many of these weathered, rural people. One doesn't think twice about trying to exact justice with one's own hands, particularly after a few drinks. And damn, do they love to drink.

My two favourite stories in this collection were "Bandits", about a family of "normal" country folks that goes out in the dead of winter nights to rob isolated liquor stores, and "Hunted by Coyotes", about a crew of young door-to-door alternative energy salesmen working in the wastes of Alberta. These two happen to be, I believe, the longest stories in the collection, too. I don't think this is exactly coincidental; while I enjoyed most of the shorter pieces, I felt the lack of development led to bit of detachment, and the lack of definitive endings hurt them a little bit. "Hunted by Coyotes" especially reminded me of a door-to-door sales job I once had, and I was really able to relate to some of the messed-up little stories depicted therein. It's really amazing what you see sometimes when you walk around from house to house. Some really strange shit, in the city even; in out-of-the-way trailer parks and townhouse lots, even moreso.

The writing here felt like a bit of a bumpy road and took me some time to get used to. It's full of what I might term country vernacular, and even outside of dialogue tends to slip into this kind of phrasing, for example, "Last night I seen him walking...."but I got used to it and it does fit this milieu particularly well. Eventually I grew to even enjoy the voice and, by the time I finished this short book, to wish there were more of it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong, assured debut, this collection of stories covers similar territory to DW Wilson and Craig Davidson: tough characters on the fringes of society who drink a lot, shoot quite a bit and get into fights almost daily, all rendered in a muscular prose that nonetheless has a tenderness in the compassion the author shows for these hard men. Some stories really stand out ('Old Man Marchuk', 'Bandits', 'Hunted by Coyotes' and 'Debris' are particularly fine), but they do all tend to be quite similar, with a very limited palette of characters. Apparently a novel is due next year - now that, I think, could be something to really look forward to.

[Keith Rosson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call it 4.5. Great read. Violent, but you should have no qualms about calling this a "literary" work - it is. Beautifully written stories about people on the lower rungs and the choices (or lack thereof) sometimes afforded them. Entertaining as hell, with some sentences you'll want to read again for the lyricism.

Also, what I really loved about this collection is the fact that the author, even with the violence inherent in the stories, never belittled poor folks - who make up the bulk of this collection, if not the entirety. They were never flat characters, always struggling, always attempting to do the right thing, even if their version of the right thing included a pretty warped version of what entailed masculinity or family indebtedness. Seriously can't believe this is a debut collection. Recommended.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of those reads that any English teacher in high school would have cringed at if it came up as a read. The language is frank, bold, violent and vulgar. But it reflects a gritty reality that exist. Hardcastle documents lives of people who are desperate and bitter yet know no other means of escaping their existence either with the intake of substances or the use of violence. This book may not be a comfortable read with a lot of the cultural elites but it is a good piece of literature.

http://tinyurl.com/y9b7o2ce

[Andrew Hood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course the fringe grittiness will be the dominant talking point with Hardcastle's writing. Yet the refinement and delicacy of the seeing and telling makes for a stoic beauty that's the real success of 'Debris'.

[Kelvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stark as the winter sun. Violence and grit abound in this collection of hillbilly-meets-Ferrante short stories. "Bandit" is excellent, as is the titular story "Debris". Well-tuned dialogue.

(I'd give this book one star as a joke but the author knows where I live, and I prefer to see middle age.)

[Paul Vermeersch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gritty, powerful stories told in vivid language without cliche. Highly recommended.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You did everything right," he said.
"Thanks," she said.

Kevin Hardcastle's debut anthology is a real work of art. But also documentary, in a way. The specific rugged lifestyle—and I mean lifestyle—reads so naturally to me I feel like I know a place and community better now. Hardcastle does not necessarily sit you through a plot, he just sits you. Characters move about their lives, or nights, usually draining bottles of alcohol and vomiting and talking to strangers. Most of them commit violent crimes, mostly with strangers, and hear beasts on the roadside when they stop to urinate or smoke. And yes, this can feel overmasculine and boring at times, but Hardcastle clearly wants to make it that way. He is leading you down into a world, and he wants you to read about gainly, unexplained action for fifteen pages just so that you can . . . live in another's shoes for a few moments? Whatever. I appreciate it. "The Rope," "Montana Border," "Most of the Houses Had Lost Their Lights" (which reads like a response to the aforementioned issues), and "Old Man Marchuk" are my favorites. They feel almost interconnected. The cousins of interconnected stories. Thank you for existing, antho + Hardman. And thanks for giving this book back, Daniel Winetaub. 9/10.

[Hannah Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are funny, alarming, and touching. You encounter ingenious thieves, sweetly drunk moms, murderous friends—and like them anyway! —as well as getting close to the honorable men and the women they love, all of whom know something about economic struggle, but who also know how to escape from wolves, and drive snowmobiles and are able 'backroad' with the best. Loyalty and scams both demand a lot from these characters, but Hardcastle's prose is so at ease with itself that you will suddenly find yourself at the end of a really good read!

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really amazing collection of prairie-noir short stories. The prose is often terse in clipped sentences of hard-boiled fiction. The first story opens like a rural heist movie and ends up extremely prescient of Colten Boushie’s murder, showing violence ensuing from the sense of entitlement of prairie landowners:
“You shot those men?”
“They were robbin’ me.”
“Your farm is fuckin’ three miles thataway.”
The first stories in the book retain many tropes of tough guy fiction but with complexity and vulnerability throughout. In the last two stories the lead characters are women and the final scene of tenderness turns the whole work on its head.
I’m looking forward to reading his novel next.

[Cody Vaters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gritty, dark, and by turns funny and disturbing. Drinking, fighting, mental illness and the mundane. I haven't enjoyed a collection of literary stories this much since Margaret Atwood's Stone Mattress.
Highly recommended.

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

A muscular new collection by a strong new voice. Nothing but gems, here.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his first collection of short fiction, Kevin Hardcastle writes tough and terse as he explores depths of human wretchedness and hardship rarely encountered in mainstream fiction. The action here takes place on the extreme margins of ordered civilization: on isolated country lanes and rutted forest trails, on exhausted farmland and in small towns where legitimate employment is hard to come by. Hardcastle’s characters have often been pushed by circumstance to the limit of their endurance and are depressed or desperate or both. The cast of characters includes criminals and cops, farmers, self-destructive alcoholics, mental patients, and one MMA fighter. These people hustle and fight for a living and sometimes just to stay alive. They get up early and go to bed exhausted. Along the way they might hurt someone or break a law or two, but it’s all for a good cause: putting food on the table and beer in the fridge. Boozing and violence are endemic. Hardcastle writes in a style that mimics a country drawl. He is able to pinpoint the meat of a scene in very few words. In this book the reader will encounter bleakness and ugliness on every page. Everything in these stories is worn out, busted or falling apart. That the author is able to engage our sympathy for people who have been raised outside the law and for characters who inflict the worst of their problems on themselves testifies to the power of the writing. A couple of stories fall prey to what seems like willful obscurity, in which style overwhelms substance. But Debris remains an impressive and original debut by a supremely gifted writer.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two reactions to this book. First, Hardcastle is a majorly talented writer of the hard-boiled masculine school. Second, this collection is best sampled in small doses. Took me a long time to get through it, because so many of the pieces just felt the same. Did I want to read another about an atavistic male who seeks answers to life problems in bottom of whiskey bottle, only to discover things are now worse - the end. The writing is relentless and that is a problem too. Relentless writing is distracting. In the first story a character "knuckled up" two beer. This threw me out of the text, wondering what this meant. This style of writing is never satisfied with simple words and ordinary expressions. Yet despite the powerful writing I was left craving more insight into the characters. And more variety in themes.

[Tyler Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

11 short stories but it felt like more, because he plays on the heart strings well.
Different stories hit different nerves. It's "a book with something to prove". It has tension, accountability, and simple writing.

Personally, I thought about how Hemingway wrote a poem about Canadians in his classic style and how much he enjoyed Canadians! I thought it had the same spirit and writing style but it was written by someone who was actually in the thick of the canadian outback, and wrote about how we actually get through hardships and hell. Only thing he misses in my opinion, is that everything is kind of the same form or shape, the people, the land, the work, the emotion.

[Liz Harmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got interrupted a few times during the reading of this beautiful book. Each story displaced the last as my favorite in the collection. In the end I loved "Debris" and "Hunted by Coyotes" best. Hardcastle gets away with stylish word-formations and Cormac McCarthy-ish sentence arrangements. In the final story, a man at a bar is described as "shirtless and inconsolable", which feels emblematic of these stories: the characters, all of them touched by the possibility of violence, are dealing with alcoholism, mental illness, poverty, and are rightfully inconsolable.

[Aleixie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at page 54. That's about 24%.

The stories, while not terrible in the themes they're trying to portray, are a bit dry. The narrative is really monotone. I fell asleep reading the one short story, and almost did it again reading the next one.

Not necessarily boring, but the writing is such that sufficient energy is needed to decipher what's going on. Energy and time I don't have. Life is too short to read crappy books.

Not really all that disappointed, because I wasn't expecting all that much in the first place.

[D.A. Lockhart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah its gritty. But there are story physics (cornfields in Montana, "foothills" of northern ontario, old as ge home security) that I often can't buy. Everybody is drunk or drinking and that dulls any sort of depth the stories can rake. Often feel like characters are flat and miss the mark of being real or of depth just for the sake of being edgy. The scenes within individual stories are far too short and don't enough heavy lifting to truly carry the work. I wanted to like this work more, but technically it just doesn't do what it sets out to do.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lean spare powerful writing. Read it!

[Jordan West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trailer Park Boys but as rendered by the canadian equivalent of Larry Brown or Daniel Woodrell; nothing groundbreaking, but effective grit lit illustrating that the great white north under late capitalism is no less dehumanizing and dystopian than anywhere else.

[Ben Dongen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gritty set of short stories. Dark isn't the right word, but it certainly isn't a lighthearted read. Everything is visceral and sharp.
A good time doesn't always have to be "fun".

[kirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much repetition - in themes, phrases, etc.

[Shelley V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

More offensive characters.