Hall of Small Mammals
Thomas Pierce
[Riverhead Books]
Much like the exhibit of endangered primates that gives Hall of Small Mammals its name, Pierce’s first collection is an engrossing display of all the floundering mammals within. In stories populated both by lonely ‘human animals’ and a variety of improbable creatures – including prehistoric dolphins and a moribund miniature mammoth – Pierce weaves together the mundane and the surreal with hilarious and melancholy results. In these stories marked by small misfortunes, the connection between ‘human’ and other animals frequently seems stronger than that between humans. Isolated and often voiceless characters revolve in their own orbits, but when a man catches an orangutan’s glance, we see the intimate connection of one lonely creature contemplating another.
Pierce’s stories are often pleasingly absurd, but the questions they raise are hardly frivolous. Concepts of death and resurrection are explored in contexts ranging from a surreal job interview to the cutting edge of science. In possibly the funniest and most disorienting story, one man’s quarantined corpse is declared a biological weapon; be they biohazard corpses, gravity-stricken YouTube blurs, or miniature mammoths resurrected from fragments of DNA, bodies elicit meaning through the ages, after death and even after extinction. Meanwhile, the present time is increasingly uncertain. In The Real Alan Gass, for instance, a theoretical physicist studies the elusive ‘daisy’ particle while living a remarkably clear second dream-life in which she is happily married to an ophthalmologist; her waking husband is left pondering which life is more real. Hall of Small Mammals may not provide any answers to these questions; indeed, Pierce’s compelling imaginative fugues leave the reader decidedly less in touch with reality. However, it is a rare work that allows exploring these questions to be this entertaining. Pierce’s funny, smart, touching and thought-provoking collection is not to be missed.
Words: Mònica Tomàs
