Scrapple

by Sian Griffiths

Imagine stepping into an apartment expecting to meet your brother and his young family only to discover twin babies abandoned to a merciless and empty interior. In prose that resonates with energy and introspection, Pushcart Prize nominee Siân Griffiths brings us to late 90s Philadelphia and the Flannigan family--15-year-old Robert, his younger sister, Bridget, and their recently-widowed mother--who have just made the hardest decision of their lives and left Oregon, and the only home they have ever known, to be with the oldest Flannigan sibling, Sean, and his twins. But Sean's absence throws the family into even deeper turmoil as Robert searches for his brother in the wake of their father's death and the family's monumental move. Navigating the dangerous shoals of a strange city and unfamiliar emotions, Robert is given the necessary insight and courage to survive this new life through his friendship with Jerome, a bisexual African American classmate. Set at a time when bullying and gun violence in schools were first becoming headlines, SCRAPPLE is a clear-eyed, streetwise tribute both to the basic human quest to know ourselves and to our lasting ability to make deep connections with others, no matter where we find ourselves.

Siân Griffiths's emotionally resonant, crisply sentenced, beautifully built Scrapple is ultimately a meditation on how not-being-at-home feels like the fundamental human condition when it comes to youth, race, place, money, mystery, just getting by from one day to the next, and pretty much anything else. An impressive work. --Lance Olsen, author of My Red Heaven

Scrapple starts with a bang and doesn't let up. Robert's quest to find his brother is gripping, but so is his quest to find his place in a new school, new neighborhood, and new city. In this suspenseful story, Griffiths still somehow makes space for moments of penetrating insight into what it's like to be a young person shouldering the weight of loss and unasked-for responsibilities. --Caitlin Horrocks, author of The Vexations

Siân B. Griffiths is an enchanter, casting her spell with fresh, unusual words, with impeccable sentences and unerring details. I love the people in this wise and luminous book, a novel steeped in poverty, sexual harassment, and racial discord, a novel daring enough to begin with babies abandoned in an empty and derelict apartment. And then bad gets worse. I started reading slowly, hoping the book wouldn't end, hoping I wouldn't have to say goodbye to our hero Robert and the indomitable Jerome, young pals who face the constant threat of violence on the mean streets of Philadelphia as they try to solve the mystery of the babies missing parents. Buy this book, friends, and you will thank me. You're not going to read many novels as powerful, as honest, and as compassionate as Scrapple. --John Dufresne, author of I Don t Like Where This Is Going

Genres: Fiction

300 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2020

About the author

Siân Griffiths lives in Ogden, Utah, where she teaches creative writing at Weber State University. Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Cincinnati Review, and American Short Fiction (online), among other publications. She is the author of the novels Borrowed Horses and Scrapple and the short fiction chapbook The Heart Keeps Faulty Time. Currently, she reads fiction as part of the editorial teams at Barrelhouse and American Short Fiction. For more information, please visit sbgriffiths.com

Reviews

[Anna Whitescarver · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boy was I excited to finish reading this book because I have a LOT of thoughts. What was good about this book was the story - it was unique, interesting, and had a good pace. What was bad was mostly everything else. The dialogue rarely felt authentic to the characters. The Black characters in particular use uncomfortable language/slang and it feels weird to read most of their dialogue knowing it was written by a white author. The main character’s journey is plagued by these weird overwhelmingly sexual thoughts. Almost every woman he interacts with is sexualized - their boobs are discussed frequently. Feels irrelevant to the plot and gross. Why begin a book with the first sentence explain him being “in love” with his sister in law? Particularly when really he just basically gets hard every time he sees her? Very weird and doesn’t affect the actual plot at all. There are some moments of effective prose, but honestly they often felt added in from somewhere else, as if already written and just applied to this book wherever they fit. Finally, there were just a few typos in this book that were disappointing to see - “to” instead of “too”, a misplaced chapter break, etc. I’d see this book turned into a play - keep the overall themes and story, ditch the rest.

[Karenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! It focuses on a teen boy trying to cope as several stressors menace him. Despite his problems, the endearing characters and underlying warm tone weave a spell that will keep you turning pages and wishing for more at the book’s end. People with ties to Philadelphia should particularly appreciate this loving tribute to the city.

[Beth J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read through this book in a weekend. Really got drawn into the story, the friendships, and the growth of the main character. I could see this as a movie.