Jerusalem Ablaze

I do love it when I am approached by publishers offering me books that take me outside of my comfort zone, as they so often provide some magical reading experiences. Jerusalem Ablaze is one such example, as I rarely read short stories of any description. So it was with a wonderfully blank mental slate that I dived into this intriguing collection…
Orlando Ortega-Medina has produced a remarkable volume of stories that are not only far reaching in terms of location, but also in the very recognisable aspects of human emotion he weaves into his character’s individual experiences. Across the stories, he addresses the themes of love, death, ageing, sexuality, family conflict and obsession with an intuitive and engaging style, that at times brings the reader up short to truly sit up, and think about what they have just read. For the purposes of this review, and so as not to mar your discovery of all the stories in this collection, I just wanted to write a few words on a couple of the stories that made me sit up and think too.
In a guest post at Reader Dad, Ortega- Medina talks about his experience of writing short stories, and makes reference to After The Storm, my particular favourite in the book, and the number of revisions he made to it, right up until the point of submission to his publisher. This story runs to about 18.5 pages, but to me encompassed the emotional breadth and detail of a book many times this length. Focussing on a woman’s chance discovery of something on a beach (no spoilers here), Ortega-Medina constructs a story that is heart-rending and thought provoking, on the breaks in communication, and loss of awareness that occurs in many personal relationships. The story is darkly strange but underscored by an innate feeling of truth and observation that takes hold of the reader, and even in the aftermath of reading reoccurs in one’s thoughts. Susan’s actions seem so totally alien and discomforting at first, but when seen through the eyes of others, are imbued with a real sense of poignancy. Also, the author’s depiction of this wild coastline where Susan and her husband dwell in their secluded lighthouse, is described with such clarity that you can sense the thrashing sea spray, the keening of the gulls, and the smell of the seaweed. Perfect compacted prose that reveals a world of emotion.
The intensity of Susan’s experience set against the broad, unending landscape of the natural world is mirrored in  Star Party, where the theme of human relationships is played out beneath a huge expanse of sky where people have gathered to star watch. I like the way that Ortega-Medina transposes the small but intense insecurities and problems of his protagonists against this broad canvas, which puts our relative importance in the universe in perspective, but never lessening the real concerns of his characters’ lives. Equally, in The Shovelist, the financial security of an old man and his wife is seen to be dependent on the coming of the snow, and his neighbour’s willingness to pay him to shovel their driveway, a fairly humdrum problem you would think, but one that in the author’s hands, explores community and the realisation of, and sympathy for,  other’s troubles.
As much as every story works in this collection as a self contained tale, the two part story of An Israel State of Mind had me wanting more. Narrating the events of a young man and his girlfriend’s trip to a kibbutz, I loved this tale of pent up emotion and unresolved love,  the exploration of difference and misunderstanding, all within the framework of a shared, and what should be a life affirming experience. I think it’s a real feat of Ortega-Medina’s writing that he so quickly enables the reader to connect on an emotional level with his characters in this story and others, when whole books can pass you by without this essential connection as a reader. I still want to know what happens to these characters beyond what is written here.
So as a non-widely read short story reader, I gained much from Jerusalem Ablaze, and it has honestly awakened an appreciation of the form for me. An alternately dark, emotional, tender, and violent contemporary collection that I enjoyed greatly. Highly recommended.

Orlando Ortega-Medina's biographical blurb describes him as a "US-born British-Canadian author of Judeo-Spanish descent." He currently lives in London, where he works as an immigration lawyer.

It is tempting to see in this début collection of short stories and its varied settings and contexts a reflection of the author's rich background and experiences. It might also be no coincidence that most of the characters are "seekers" who are trying to come to terms with their cultural or religious heritage, with their sexuality or, more generally, with their personal identity.

There is a variety also in the author's style and approach. The anthology is subtitled "Stories of Love and Other Obsessions" and my initial impressions were of a latter-day Edgar Allan Poe, using elements from the horror genre to highlight his character's fixations. Thus, in the opening "Torture by Roses", the narrator disdainfully watches the body of his teacher and mentor going up in flames, ironically confirming that he has learnt his master's perverse lessons in hate. In "After the Storm", we're even more clearly in Poe territory, as a lonely Oregon housewife finds a man's body on the beach and carries it home for company.

In other stories, Ortega-Medina ratches up the sexual tension, through some explicit and even violent imagery. A case in point is "Invitation to the Dominant Culture", about a man who eventually acts out his violent fantasies about women. Also in the same vein is the title story "Jerusalem Ablaze" about a young Catholic convert who enters a seminary in Israel but is seduced by a Jewish dominatrix. It is a story about religious identity and guilt capped by a bloody denouement. Unsurprisingly, some early readers found these stories "disturbing" -which, frankly, they are. It is a pity that this will put some readers off an original anthology which includes its tender moments (such as "Star Party", about an immigrant with an interest in astronomy, or "The Shovelist", about an old man who convinces his new neighbours - a young gay couple- that they need somebody to shovel snow from their drive).

Ultimately, this brief collection's dizzying variety is both its main advantage and its disadvantage. Its sometimes awkward mix of dark pieces and more "mainstream" material, flash fiction and longer tales, wildly different settings and characters, all within less than 200 pages, give it the feel of a "scrapbook" or tantalising "taster" rather than a fully-fledged debut. There is certainly a gifted author at work here but I, for one, would have wished for a more cohesive collection.

"Stories of Love and Other Obsessions" is a very apt subtitle for Ortega-Medina's debut collection of short stories. Each of these stories portrays ordinary human beings who find themselves in the grip of compulsions or of malign external influences. Few, if any, of them are about "love" in the traditional sense.

The stories are set in Japan, Canada, the USA and Israel, and range from the expansive "An Israel State of Mind" to the mere vignette of "Eyesore in the Ginza". One character, Marc, appears in more than one story, but not much is made of that in any narrative sense.

The collection has quite a variety of styles. The opening "Torture by Roses" and the closing "Jerusalem Ablaze" are creepy and macabre. I found the sadness at the heart of "After the Storm", "And A Little Child Shall Lead Them" and "The Shovelist" the most affecting. The urban grit of "Eyesore in the Ginza" and "Invitation to the Dominant Culture" was OK, but I've seen it done better in the hands of writers like Junot Diaz.

I read this in a single sitting and am very much looking forward to Ortega-Medina's next effort.