UA Writer’s First Novel Inspires Laughter Through Tears

"Once upon a time there was an unhappy queen who wanted to fly."

Nicky slid down heavily, scowled, and fell into the bed beside his mother. "Why does it have to be about a queen?" he asked.

"Who knows. It’s my story."

- Iron Shoes by Molly Giles
Simon & Schuster
240 pages, $21.50

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Molly Giles’ first novel, Iron Shoes, tells the story of Kay Sorensen, a middle-aged woman who has mistaken boredom for inner peace, stagnation for stability, and habit for love.

But when Kay’s long-ailing mother dies, she finds that the voice of her harshest critic has been replaced by an uncomfortable silence in which she must finally speak out against the shortcomings of her own life. With an emotionally distant father, a morose and self-involved husband, and a past filled with unspent desire and unrealized talent, Kay has plenty to rail against.

It’s familiar territory for Molly Giles, whose two collections of stories - Rough Translations and Creek Walk - also explored the tortuous inner workings of human relationships.

"I like to write about families and the relationships inside them," Giles said. "Each family can be absolutely crazy and absolutely unique - its own little feast of dysfunction."

But even though the territory is familiar, it is not old. In Iron Shoes, Giles allows her wicked imagination to devise unexpected scenarios - a blue horse of death, a yellow elixir called "the Stuff" - in which her characters can be both human and humorous. Often the moments of greatest indignity are suffered with a wit that is both hilarious and pitiful. Giles’ readers will literally laugh at the pain.

A novel can be a daunting prospect for an author who has forged her reputation as a short fiction writer. In 1985, Rough Translations won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction as well as the Boston Globe Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction. It also earned Giles a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize.

But Giles has not wandered astray by switching to the novel form. In the same blunt, clean language that characterized Giles’ short fiction, Iron Shoes presents the whole story of Kay’s self-discovery without distraction or extraneous detail. Unlike Kay’s mother, nothing can be cut from this novel.

"At first, writing a novel made me feel lost. It was too much space for me - like moving into a house without enough furniture," Giles said. "But since finishing the book, I find I’m only thinking in terms of novels now. I used to set out to write a novel and end on page ten. Now I try to write a short story, and by page 30, I wonder if it’s more than a short story."

The transition from storyteller to novelist has coincided with other transitions in Giles’ career. In 1999, she left her home in Woodacre, Calif., to become an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas.

The position has enabled Giles to concentrate on her own work while guiding a community of new writers toward better prose.

"I don’t think writing can be taught," she said. "But I firmly believe it can be learned."

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