Black Ice Matter

by Gina Cole

This collection of short stories explores connections between extremes of heat and cold. Sometimes this is spatial or geographical; sometimes it is metaphorical. Sometimes it involves juxtapositions of time; sometimes heat appears where only ice is expected.

In the stories, a woman is caught between traditional Fijian ways and the brutality of the military dictatorship; a glaciology researcher falls into a crevasse and confronts the unexpected; two women lose children in freak shooting accidents; a young child in a Barbie Doll sweatshop dreams of a different life; secondary school girls struggle with secrets about an addicted janitor; and two women take a deathly trip through a glacier melt stream. These are some of the unpredictable stories in this collection that follow themes of ice and glaciers in the heat of the South Pacific and take us into unusual lives and explorations.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Ebooks, LGBT, Anthologies, Adult Fiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2016

About the author

Gina Cole is of Fijian, Scottish and Welsh descent. She is a freelance writer and lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her collection Black Ice Matter won the Hubert Church Prize for Best First Book Fiction at the 2017 Ockham Book Awards. Her work has been widely anthologized and published in literary journals. She was the inaugural Pasifika curator at the Auckland Writers Festival in 2021. She is a qualified lawyer. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Massey University and is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa. Her second book Na Viro is a science fiction fantasy novel and a work of Pasifikafuturism.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The point is she is part of the fabric of my life, and I suppose that’s just how it is. The memories popping into your head from other times in your life never leave you: they are part of you forever."
~From "Swim Bike Run" (short story) in BLACK ICE MATTER by Gina Cole, 2016.

The stories in Black Ice Matter were the final project for Cole, as she finished her Masters of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, and they are indeed *creative* writing! Many of the stories share a realistic setting - usually her home of Fiji or New Zealand - and details begin to warp, or "shatter", keeping with the ice theme.

Ice is a theme throughout the stories. She often uses Fijian characters as storytellers, who find themselves in extreme situations. Training for Ironman triathlons, as in the quote above from the story "Swim Bike Run", climbing or studying glaciers as in two other favorite stories "Till", and "Glacier". One story plays on the ice theme as slang for methamphetamines, and another as the icy relations between estranged lovers and family members.

My favorite story, "Till", is such a fascinating concept - it would make a great film! - about a glaciologist who falls into a large crevasse, only to discover an ancient woman frozen in the ice beside him. Hallucinating, mystery, time-portal - whatever it is, it's a great story in a few short pages. If you're curious to get a taste, it's available to read online here: https://www.thethreelamps.com/article/till?publication=spring-2017

[Trudie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done Huia publishing for getting this accomplished short story collection by debut NZ author Gina Cole out in the world.

I loved it.

It was fun to see this author try out so many personas and situations and yet thread them through with what I came to think of as, ice, science and bad luck.

I am usually fairly ambivalent about the short story format but this book surprised me. The writing is assured, precise and it feels like a completely new and exciting NZ / Fijian voice.

Black Ice Matter touches on many aspects of life in the pacific, there is racism and same sex relationships, domestic violence, child labour, and climate change. I make it sound like a kind of grab bag of issues book, but the stories are surprising in their execution, taking dark, and almost hyper-real turns.

The book opens with a story set in Fiji during the coup, which is not something I have read much about and sent me scrambling to get up to speed on the history.

The man in Home detention might have been one of my favourite characters, for the absurdity of his efforts to report in for monitoring during the Christchurch earthquake. The story is humorous and yet manages to read almost like an action adventure.

The glacier researcher who falls down a down a crevice and ends up in a conversation with a prehistoric woman in Till was also a standout.

A brief interlude in the mind of a child worker sewing inauguration ball gowns for Barbie dolls hit a surreal note, and had echoes of the Sonmi 451 story from David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas .

Swim, Bike, Run is a bittersweet vignette of competing in the Taupo Ironman after having an argument with a lover. The layers of detail in this were exquisite, Gina Cole either runs triathlon or has done her research and it is a surprising thing to have described in literature.

Two parallel stories of gun fatalities one in Fiji and one in NZ was also well done and leads the reader to do their own exercise of spot the difference.

I could go on excitingly trying to pin down the style and scope of this startling little collection of 13 stories but hopefully I have piqued enough interest that more people will pick this one up for themselves.

[Hastings75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book on a recommendation to assist me in hitting my target for Read Harder 2017 Challenge - a target that is looking further and further away as just too many other good books I want to read!

I enjoyed most of the short stories in this collection, particularly the two "youth gun" stories. Very well done! A contrast of views!

Some of them were a tad unambiguous for my liking and, as such, I felt I may have missed the message(s).

But an enjoyable half day of reading nonetheless.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first few stories in the collection but as I delved deeper into the collection I felt the stories became over-complicated and possibly over-worked. Metaphors became clunky and additional elements/sidelines in many of the stories seemed unnecessary.

[Tui Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the strangest feeling that this author must be someone a lot like me. But I suspect she gives this to every reader. Her feeling for the ocean, her understanding of triathlon. Her ownership of her South Pacific setting. Those were threads that resonated for me. But these stories were so richly layered, perhaps others would find their own different threads inside the stories that might not even closely match mine.
From the first story it was clear that here was something very different. "Tabua" was an insight into the Fijian coup, but so culturally dense and gently mystical, I’d never read a war story like it. So cross-cultural, so marinely influenced from its title to the ocean-spanning consciousness of the whale that haunts the story from the freezing Antarctic ice to the lushness of tropical Fiji. A tabua is the tooth of a sperm whale, one that carries the spirit of the whale it once served - a magical influence over a human war story. The peace and majesty of the ultimate wild juxtaposed with petty human hatreds, fears, and violence. May every victim have such protection and guidance as they succumb to sordid human conflict.
Then the strange "Swim Bike Run." Who would think to set a tale that’s both love story and ghost story in the middle of the ironman triathlon? I do understand that once you commit to the training for an event like that, even death may have trouble stopping you from competing. So it all rang solidly authentic to me.
In "Till" A character survives days inside a glacier in Tibet mentally slicing papaya fruit in Fiji while a pre-historic woman trapped frozen in the glacier saves his life, converses with him and captivates him with such power that he waits all his subsequent life to meet her again. This story was perhaps my favourite in the book. Never before had I read anything remotely like it - a story that deserves immortality and so layered you would gain fresh insight with every subsequent reading.
Children die in these stories. There are two that share quite similar plots, both involving the death of a child. But it is as though the author is proving how different two similar stories can be, if you just change the characters inhabiting them.
Every story is an adventure in originality and I don’t have time to mention them all but black Ice hit me with its poignancy and Home Detention was both poignant and hilarious and I loved the character doing all he could through every calamity to attend his weekly report-in to the police-station all for the sake of his beloved son.
I can’t recommend this collection highly enough. A brilliant read. Amazing to think this is a new author. She has great future I’m sure.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
A solid but uneven collection of short stories taking place in New Zealand and Fiji, with themes of death, grief, etc - i enjoyed them but I found them a bit repetitive, several of them (two dealing with a child being accidentally shot, for example) were so similar that they felt like draft versions of the exact same story. I'd read more by Gina Cole, though, because I liked her cool, precise writing.

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Finally my #PasifikaReadathonChallenge journey has delivered a delightful find to me. This small but impactful short story collection by a Fijian-Scottish-Welsh writer living in New Zealand kept me riveted through its sometimes weird, sometimes uncomfortable, always engrossing moments.

BLACK ICE MATTER ostensibly explores themes of extreme heat vs extreme cold, but I didn’t find this an obvious thread throughout. Instead, we get ten varied stories ranging from Fiji to Tibet; from the quietly literary to the magical realist. I wasn’t really sure what ties the collection together–maybe a subtle commentary about the everyday tragic inheritances of complicated cultural legacies?–but there was just something about these stories that had me reading and reading and reading, willing to let Gina Cole take me wherever she wanted.

Glaciers and extreme weather appear a few times, as do the consequences of limitations placed on our social roles. Cole expertly gives us just the right amount of backstory, characterization, and plot to understand and be invested in the characters. Her writing is never florid, but rather precisely executed for maximum impact.

If I had any qualms, it would be, first, that these short stories tended to end abruptly, and I couldn’t figure out the purpose of doing so; and second, that I wished there had been a stronger theme connecting all the stories. Despite that, I am firmly impressed, and am definitely going to seek out other things that Gina Cole has written.

[Marg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was too much of a mish-mash for me. I loved the first chapter or so, set in Fiji with plenty of Fijiian touches. After that it just went downhill, accelerating into nonsense. For me there were just too many distractions that did not clearly tie together. I could not recommend this novel, although I think the writer is capable.

[Pamela Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Gina's debut book. It is full of twists and unexpected turns. Glacial and ice theme throughout - from glacier to methamphetimine; from Fiji to rural New Zealand to somewhere in Asia...Black Ice Matter is a fabulous dip-in and dip-out collection of 13 short stories.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short story is an interesting form lending itself to vignettes, things that explore a moment, an idea, an incident. Gina Cole’s are slippery, incidents where little is as it seems, where fantasies and hopes, vengeance and opportunity play themselves out – and almost always in an expected unexpected sting in the tail, a last page twist that takes us elsewhere – and that makes them all the more unsettling. In some, such as ‘Swim, Bike, Run’, it comes as a shock, in others, such as ‘Rabbit Shoot’, it emerges from the text, slowly and unsettlingly. Not all have that twist, but even they remain unsettling – as in Lucas’s obsession with the rules in ‘Home Detention’ or the recurrence of life across thousands of years in ‘Till’, both of which defy expectations in impressive ways.

The other thing about the short story is that not many really grab me and make me want more; this collection did just that. Part of that desire is the Fijian inflected, Pasifika queerness – more in form than content – that weaves itself into and through these stories, but more so it is the tightness and precision with which they are crafted that appeals. Quite, quite superb.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite different to the book I read immediately before it (Ancestry) despite also being a short story collection. I have to say I did prefer Ancestry's style - but that's maybe because I'm slightly wimpy and don't always warm to the dark, twisted types. I see Albert Wendt has spoken of Black Ice Matter highly though, and I think that's fair. Perhaps I just didn't quite understand why there were a few characters who suddenly died, or stories that suddenly ended in an accident. I'm sure that's my issue.

Particularly chilling was of course "Rabbit Shoot" - I'd no clue what was going on by the end though. And I liked Swim Bike Run for its ruminations about exes, and Melt, whcih is I think a good one to end on.

I also think this collection would be well-suited to TV just because the landscape was quite hard to picture for someone like me (who grew up in the unimaginatively-landscaped Birmingham), but a lot of its harshness was a crucial part of the story.

[Wren Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

diverse collection with an icy thread

Ice doesn’t seem like a natural subject matter to weave through a collection of Pacific Island writing, but Gina Coles does it incredibly well. Her stories are all standalone and cover a wide range of topics while having a common thread of ice and it’s precariousness, and the way there is often a lot more beneath the water than we can see on the surface.

I particularly loved that queer characters just are, without the story having to be about their queerness, and several stories really resonated with me in their depictions of queer relationships.

Be warned - this isn’t a feel-good collection! Stories deal with challenging topics like child death, war, and racist violence. But every story will make you stop and think, while you also marvel at the beautifully woven words.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories with a Fijian focus.

Overall I enjoyed this collection, but I was absolutely not prepared for how dark it was - a little too dark at times for me. I was also surprised at how many stories took place in NZ (including one right here in Taupō!), though almost all with a Fijian perspective or link. I found Home Detention particularly moving - I haven’t come across a depiction of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in fiction before, how it felt and the absolute carnage, and it took me beyond the dry scientific facts of it. The stories offer a series of juxtapositions - hot, cold, Fiji, NZ, belonging, not belonging, life, death - which made the collection feel cohesive despite the stories all being very different. A varied but strikingly dark collection of stories, with strong links to Fiji, either through place or perspective.

[Suzesmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

33📱🇫🇯FIJI-NZ🇳🇿Gina Cole describes herself as being from Fijian-Scottish-Welsh ancestry, and is a family law barrister in Auckland, NZ’s largest city. This collection of short stories was written as part of her Masters of Creative Writing, and unlike other professionals-turned-authors, they don’t centre around her area of expertise. The topics range from accidental children deaths, to children in sweat shops, to psychopathic children to lesbian triathletes to elderly explorers. As I read the stories, I struggled to make the connection and was often disappointed at the abrupt and often unsatisfying endings. Sad to say, they are on the whole a collection of highly forgettable stories.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories clearly show that Cole is a very capable writer but this just was not the best short story collection I’ve read.

Some of the stories were great while others were not so good. The resounding feeling I had after each story was one of wanting more. Sometimes that was good because the story was great and I wanted to read more but more often I was left wanting more because the story was just… not good. You were left feeling short changed more than satisfied. The further I got through the book the more clunkier the stories seemed to get and many felt they were full of unnecessary filler to make some unknown page count.

[Vanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Ice matter is an enjoyable collection of short stories to read that is challenging and at times disquieting. The strong undertones of death left me wondering where this theme would be going with each subsequent story, which made me want to not ration myself at reading one story each night, but to gorge on several in one sitting. Gina Cole brings a diverse range of voices and styles to the stories, capturing many moods. She is a new writer and I look forward to her future works. 3 1/2 stars for me.

[Andi C Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant collection, a blend of speculative and realist but transcending the "just add magic" trajectory. There's something a little off centre about these stories, in both structure and theme, that's hard to put your finger on but makes them a particular type of uncanny. There's a sense of time running in different directions - from glacier-preserved bodies to the sense of dissociation after a child's death. This read is unnerving, but I'd absolutely come back for more.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a beautifully written collection short stories.

[David Jenkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, very clever, dark, simply told short stories. Enjoy.

[Christine Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

All rather dark relating to fatal accidents!

[Keira · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed the aotearoa setting and pacifica focuses but mid idk

[Erin Reads The World · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole is a short story collection told through a Fijian lense. Only a handful of the stories are actually set in Fiji, but many are set in New Zealand with characters who have ties to Fiji.

This collection is very dark. The biggest theme interwoven through all the stories is death. Maybe talking about and acknowledging death is a larger part of Fijian culture, maybe it's just a topic that allowed Cole to connect many different stories. I don't really know, but there's no escaping death in this one.

The stories make for heavy reading but they are all exceptionally written (bar one story which is quite problematic). Some stories have elements of magical realism, some have a dark sense of humour, some give insight into the political history of Fiji.

'Till' was the standout story in the book. It focuses on a young man who falls into a glacier, coming face-to-face with a frozen prehistoric woman who he begins to communicate with. I also really enjoyed the humour in 'Home Detention' which gives a unique insight into the aftermath of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Other stories that I loved include 'Swim, Bike, Run' about the baffling dedication to long-distance competitive sports, and 'Black Ice' which focuses on love, race and chance on the glaciers in New Zealand.

Both 'Pigeon Shoot' and 'Rabbit Shoot' were harrowing but impactful stories.

If you like short story collections that will leave you reeling, where the story ends and your thoughts continue to unravel, and don't mind reading stories that will make you uncomfortable - this may be right up your alley. Black Ice Matter won't be for everyone but I enjoyed the varied perspectives and stories included in the book.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a fan of short stories but enjoyed the language of these stories

[Littlebookterror · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first two stories but the rest...

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this collection of short stories. The writing was so visceral, from record high heat in Auckland to the water of a triathlon to the ice of a glacier. It spanned the Pacifika diaspora -- Fiji, New Zealand, the ocean, dreams of the West. And the theme of ice recurs in so many different ways -- the glaciers, slang for meth, ice carvings, the chilly coldness of a frozen relationship. It's also a collection of extremes -- coups, earthquakes, climate change, gun fatalities.

I found these really compelling and they left many lasting impressions on me. I will have to continue to look out for Gina Cole!

[Rosetta Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hand on heart, this is one beautifully written book. The stories drop you right in the middle of the action, no warm up needed. The characters are diverse and rich, and the technique leaves you wanting more, with each and every story within this collection. Worth reading. Unique and wonderful.