“I could feel the needle-sharp cut of fall piercing my clothes.” – Rebecca Hirsch Garcia, My Full Catastrophe
With her debut collection, The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories, Ottawa’s Rebecca Hirsch Garcia shows us parts of humanity we don’t want to acknowledge: the visceral parts, the complicated parts. Hers is a book for lovers of dark fiction and harsher truths.
Cover image provided by ECW Press.
Garcia’s message for readers—“that they’re not alone in their messy feelings or their messy thoughts”—means she doesn’t mind if they’re uncomfortable with her stories, as long as they can understand and maybe even empathize.
“When I write, I’m always looking to explore something messy about human life, something that’s not perfect,” says Garcia. “I’m not necessarily looking for resolution. I’m looking to explore those unfinished, messy feelings—the ones that don’t wrap up in a little package.”
From the opening story, A Golden Light, the prose is moving and brimming with feeling. Readers are faced with how powerful and personal grief can be, and how the miraculous can pull us from sorrow.
“I love the fantastic,” Garcia says. “You’re able to draw out really heightened emotions that way … Common Animals is a story that’s metaphorical—it’s about domestic violence—and that’s something that’s so hard to accurately convey the horror of … Someone turning into a wolf is so surreal and ridiculous and unexplainable, and that is also what domestic violence is like.”
Garcia weaves connections between her characters masterfully. From children to teens to adults, her relationships are natural and honest. She pulled me into her scenes as if they were drawn from my own memory.
Garcia agrees. “A lot of the stories are about relationships and how maybe, even if you love someone, something can go wrong. I like playing with those dynamics—about the tension between.”
Rebecca Hirsch Garcia. Photo provided.
As for the titular story, it’s marked by long, roaming sentences with a distinct and sweeping rhythm. The gentle rise and fall are juxtaposed with the razor-sharp edges of the story itself. The Girl Who Cried Diamonds made me want to write something beautiful, like whistling the tune of a great song after hearing it on the radio.
“I really love that story,” Garcia says. “It was inspired by fairytales that I grew up reading and [from] embracing that darkness. I think it pops.”
And how about that hometown?
“Ottawa is definitely an inspiration to me,” Garcia admits. “I’m from Ottawa. I’ve lived here my whole life. And I just think it’s absolutely fascinating. A lot of people who aren’t from here think it’s a really boring place but … everything exciting or dark or funny has happened to me in Ottawa.”
Garcia is currently working on a full-length novel.
Pick up a copy of The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories wherever you buy your books. To learn more about Rebecca Hirsch Garcia, check out @rhirschgarcia on Instagram.
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