Reviewed by Katrina Cook
First Law of Holes by Meg Pokrass follows themes of messy love, becoming, obsession, and loneliness through means of unconventional storytelling. She uses flash fiction and places each story sporadically around each short collection. However, the stories eventually all come together if you pay close attention. First Law of Holes consists of a larger collection of her past works that range from 2011 to 2019 and her newest from 2024. I read her most recent collection of 23 short stories. The first story tackles the short love of a young women in her late 20’s who has an affair with an older man in his 90’s. It has just a couple humorous dialogue moments. “‘Only a monkey,’ he said, ‘would offer this old sack of bones a gift from the Red Planet.’ He said this because of my newly red hair.” Mostly, it’s sad but not taking itself too seriously. This story sets the tone of becoming and messy love that is explored throughout the collection.
Another recurring theme is animals. Pokrass has a way with metaphors and she uses animals to relate some of her characters. In one story titled, “Champion of Pigeons,” the narrator compares herself to pigeons, who are content to live in cages. In “If You Want to be Loved, Love,” the narrator recalls her childhood family unit of always wanting to be strong like a horse for her father but it never working out. When the narrator talks briefly about her mother, she compares her to the early bird that catches the worm.
Pokrass mentions “holes” in almost each story. Characters search for holes, ignore them, create them, find them, and some completely leave them. Holes refers to partners, understood family trauma, friends, and even the characters themselves can be a “hole.” In the story titled “First Law of Holes,” exactly like the title of the collection, a woman circus contortionist learns to stop digging once she’s in a romantic hole. She learns this lesson long after she fell into the “hole,” but eventually she realizes. She uses the words her mother once said, “The first law of holes is to stop digging.” When you find yourself in a bad situation or position, it’s best stop making it worse.
Pokrass has a capacity for dialogue. Her stories almost depend solely on dialogue to further the narrative. For example, in “First Law of Holes,” “‘Before he became a clown, he was a bit light-footed,’ Mom said. ‘Your father could slip away in the middle of a funeral and nobody would notice.’ … ‘What was he like in regular ways?’ I asked. ‘What did he like to eat, for instance?’ ‘He loved a good steak,’… ‘In fact, this was one of the only things normal about him.’” The dialogue between characters seems genuine but, in some ways, there seems to be something missing. Missing in a way that a character’s line was cut, which can allude to the surreal. In another example from “The Hedgehog House,” “‘Black kitties scare me, no hard feelings,’ he said… ‘Don’t be superstitious,’ she replied… ‘I’m glad you feel I’m someone of value,’ she said… ‘I live in a structure shaped like a hedgehog,’ he had said.” This is a conversation between lovers before they got officially together. As you read, it feels like a part of the conversation is missing. This is something Pokrass does often.
Realism in fiction is a subgenre that consists of works that could have occurred to people in a real setting. They resemble real life. There are experiences that are explored throughout each story that provide a sense of relatability and realness to the collection. Marriage and divorce, familial issues, childhood, and nostalgia are just some of the things that Pokrass dives into. Each story has a sad tone with a sprinkle of humor, however others have a mysteriously dark tone such as “Family Secrets,” which is about a family that was kept on leashes by their mother. It’s never outwardly said if that was literal or not. Some stories can even be interpreted by readers as though they are connected. Pokrass is an author that likes to disrupt her readers expectations of what’s happening in a story, or where the story is going. This is a short story collection best read slowly to take in what Pokrass is exploring.