Review - Pink Icing by Pamela Mordecai

Pink Icing
by Pamela Mordecai
Insomniac Press, 2006

Reviewed by Anne Borden

Pink Icing is the first collection of short stories by Mordecai, an established poet, playwright and children's story writer. The stories are set mainly in Jamaica with occasionally migrations to other islands, including New York.

Mordecai is a masterful storyteller with a poet's sense of detail and a keen grasp of dialect. She often starts with a seemingly plain story, slowly adding depth to create a suspenseful read that is rich in both character development and plot. While some pieces are the kind you slowly savour (particularly if you are familiar with the Caribbean), others are page-turners, dramatic tales of family, love and community that transcend geography.

But it is Mordecai's representations of childhood that are especially remarkable. Mordecai skillfully navigates the social world of adolescents – the curious, the fearful, the cavalier – as well as the inner worlds of children and teens. Her young characters struggle with the life consequences of small mistakes, experience the joys of heroism, catch glimpses into the pathos of adults and authority, and cope with the impact of race, colour and class in a Caribbean context. Within all this, Mordecai also carves out a space for the small moments of joy that her characters grab and savour, like a pink-frosted cupcake in a store window.

One of the collection's strongest stories revolves around Alvin, who has just been suspended from school, and Mr. Chin, of Chin's Self-Serve. The event in the story lasts about an hour, but two lifetimes are represented in this brief moment of crisis and connection across generations and ethnicities. Refreshingly, this story about a troubled kid manages to embrace redemption but avoids pulling any punches:

From Alvin small, he feel something inside him jumping around so he can't stand steady, always have to disturb things, upset the quiet. He don't know where this nuisance come from that drive him to do these make-trouble things. He is just compelled to do them. Like, you must climb a tree for a mango, once the mango is ripe on the tree. Like you bound to burst a empty juice box – "POW" – if it is right there in front of you. Life is keeping on doing things because if you stop there is this strange feeling inside you, like something missing, or in the wrong place, or turning poopalicks over and over in your stomach.

Mordecai's material can be heavy, but her stories are never over-wrought – just appropriately-wrought – with a fair share of humour and a humanistic edge. She is a mature writer who knows how to tell a story with nuance, heart and a clear narrative track. It's rumoured that Mordecai has just finished a novel. With any luck, we will be reading a lot more fiction from her in the coming years.

Anne Borden is a Toronto writer.