Rust Is A Form of Fire

A fascinating approach to Fanon. Well-worth visiting. An approachable narrative style and interesting theoretical angle.

I admit that I wasn't certain what to expect from Rust Is A Form Of Fire. I received an advance copy from the publisher, Guernica Editions, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, and chose the book mostly for its wonderfully weird title.

Inside, Joe Fiorito has compiled a series of notes and sentences that recorded his 18 hours of observing random people passing a Toronto street corner. It sounds like a bizarre premise for a book, but I thought that it worked beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed reading every word. The prose itself is practically poetry, indeed Fiorito mentions this in his introduction.

The people of Toronto appear very much as the people of any major city so it was easy to imagine myself into Fiorito's shoes. However, there were also expressions that I didn't understand - backhoe, 'do rag - and elements such as the regularly passing street cars which reminded me that this was not my city. I would love to see the five figure sculpture for which the book is titled. There is a gentle thread of humour running through the observations, mainly due to the repetitive and mimicking nature of people. Do we really all wear such a limited range of clothing and shoes? Is our ebb and flow so predictable? Does everyone in a city buy takeout coffee?

I would love to recommend Rust Is A Form Of Fire to anyone who enjoys contemporary poetry, impressions of travel or the ever popular pastime of people-watching. Especially to the people-watchers!