The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales by Kirsty Logan

The intensity and focus of the paper folding project keeps her mind occupied so that she isn't completely overwhelmed by her longing for her partner.ĭiversity isn't something that makes much of an appearance in fairy tales, especially in the sterilized, Disney universe. A train ticket becomes a tongue, a newspaper is folded to make intestines. To help assuage her loneliness, Rebecca takes to collecting paper ephemera and folding them to make a life-sized model of a human. He calls weekly, but is only able to talk briefly each time. Because of the distance, he often works away for weeks at a time. Rebecca misses her partner, Sean, who works out at sea on an oil rig. When rains finally come, and Shelly's garden blooms in vibrancy, it's as though Shelly has herself bloomed back into life from out of her depression.Ī different kind of loss is felt in 'Origami'. The color of paint is a pale yellow, and Peter remarks that the color would 'work for a boy or a girl'. He repeatedly paints a spare bedroom, which the couple refer to as 'everything except the nursery'. Peter tries to be supportive, loving, and understanding. She spends all day, and most of the night, obsessively planting and tending to seeds, but without success. Shelly suffers physically, psychologically, and emotionally from the tragedy.

They were so distraught that they retreated from their lives. I inferred that Shelly and Peter were once going to be parents, but a tragic event (miscarriage/stillbirth) took their child from them. I found the infertility of the land to be a metaphor for Shelly's own infertility.

There is very little rain, which makes the land infertile. They find the adjustment very difficult, especially struggling to grow anything - food, flower, family. In 'Feeding', Shelly and Peter leave their modern, coastal Australian life and move to the arid, sparse Outback. This loss is manifested in different ways, each poignant and heartbreaking. The characters in these stories are heavily affected by loss: Of a child, of missing a partner who cannot be nearby. Emotion runs as a vein through most of the stories in this collection, but I was particularly struck by 'Feeding' and 'Origami'.

The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales by Kirsty Logan