Iconoclasm
by David Coyle
Don’t be deceived by Iconoclasm’s slimness. Yes, it is only 122 pages and yes, you can read it in one sitting and will probably want to, but it is no inconsequential read. Long after I had put it down, Thomas stayed with me, along with the story’s enduring backdrop of snow falling in Wellington.
It’s an October evening and uncharacteristically snowing when Thomas “pushes back tears” and leaves his office in Lambton Quay. In a pub in Cuba Street, we learn that he earns little more than the minimum wage – a stout costs “about half an hour’s work, after tax”. So begins a kaleidoscopic night that will take Thomas from Cuba Street’s bright lights and night people to a filthy flat in Newton “in dire need of being torn down”, Oriental Bay and finally home to Island Bay.
Along the way, we learn that Thomas is kind, a young man who comforts Kate, a tearful older woman in the pub, but we don’t yet know why their conversation unduly saddens him. An unwelcome encounter with Baz, an alcoholic, P-wrecked busker leads Thomas reluctantly back to the Newton flat of his student days – anything it seems is an excuse for not hurrying home tonight. Ten years on, it is still home to his university flatmates, wallowing in their failed lives, dealing drugs or permanently wasted: he is the only one who didn’t drop out after the first year.
Why then is Thomas so unhappy? It’s page 105 before we find out, and that’s as it should be. However, knowing why means that a second reading of Iconoclasm sharpens the reader’s awareness. Kate’s comments about ecology and extinction, “We create, we destroy; we make, we unmake” is, on second reading, not just conservationist-speak, but also a stab into the heart of Thomas’s sorrow. And there are more clues, twisting the knife, but they would be spoilers.
Having visited his website I wasn’t surprised to learn that Coyle is also a poet. Tightly written and rich in vivid descriptions and insights, Iconoclasm is a haunting story which will certainly repay a second read.
by David Coyle
Don’t be deceived by Iconoclasm’s slimness. Yes, it is only 122 pages and yes, you can read it in one sitting and will probably want to, but it is no inconsequential read. Long after I had put it down, Thomas stayed with me, along with the story’s enduring backdrop of snow falling in Wellington.
It’s an October evening and uncharacteristically snowing when Thomas “pushes back tears” and leaves his office in Lambton Quay. In a pub in Cuba Street, we learn that he earns little more than the minimum wage – a stout costs “about half an hour’s work, after tax”. So begins a kaleidoscopic night that will take Thomas from Cuba Street’s bright lights and night people to a filthy flat in Newton “in dire need of being torn down”, Oriental Bay and finally home to Island Bay.
Along the way, we learn that Thomas is kind, a young man who comforts Kate, a tearful older woman in the pub, but we don’t yet know why their conversation unduly saddens him. An unwelcome encounter with Baz, an alcoholic, P-wrecked busker leads Thomas reluctantly back to the Newton flat of his student days – anything it seems is an excuse for not hurrying home tonight. Ten years on, it is still home to his university flatmates, wallowing in their failed lives, dealing drugs or permanently wasted: he is the only one who didn’t drop out after the first year.
Why then is Thomas so unhappy? It’s page 105 before we find out, and that’s as it should be. However, knowing why means that a second reading of Iconoclasm sharpens the reader’s awareness. Kate’s comments about ecology and extinction, “We create, we destroy; we make, we unmake” is, on second reading, not just conservationist-speak, but also a stab into the heart of Thomas’s sorrow. And there are more clues, twisting the knife, but they would be spoilers.
Having visited his website I wasn’t surprised to learn that Coyle is also a poet. Tightly written and rich in vivid descriptions and insights, Iconoclasm is a haunting story which will certainly repay a second read.
Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Title: Iconoclasm
Author: David Coyle
Publisher: Calaveras Press (self-published)
ISBN: 978-0-473-71545-8
RRP: $30
Available: Wellington independent bookstores (Unity Books, Marsden Books, The Undercurrent, Another Chapter, and Schrödinger’s Books)
Author: David Coyle
Publisher: Calaveras Press (self-published)
ISBN: 978-0-473-71545-8
RRP: $30
Available: Wellington independent bookstores (Unity Books, Marsden Books, The Undercurrent, Another Chapter, and Schrödinger’s Books)
RSS Feed
