Fracture Patterns

Louise E. Allin, a poet and short-story writer, is also an English instructor at Cambrian College.

Fracture Patterns is a powerful book. An accomplished professional, Gail
Helgason writes her stories with an exacting hand. At their heart is a
familiar friend and deadly enemy—the landscape—in any climate.
Personal relationships crash against this mighty backdrop. Troubled
marriages reach the breaking point, young lovers watch their innocence
crumble, chance acquaintances in the wilderness fall into fateful
pairings. Each story uses a natural symbol—a lava flow in “Crossing
the Crater”; a tumultuous river, a mountain, glacial remains as in
“Erratics”; mineral deposits in “Fracture Patterns.” Though
generally presented from a woman’s point of view, these tales speak
for men as well. A story once begun is impossible to put down—a couple
encounter a grizzly and conspire in healing lies; the blast of a
mountain biker breaks into the peace of a hiker, triggering a deadly
revenge—and the variety keeps the reader asking for more. Helgason
spins poetry into her prose, invites us to contrast the gritty feel of
pyrites against the teeth with the smoothness of gold. Her back-country
experience lends credibility to the details, whether at the summit of a
Hawaiian volcano or in the rainforests of British Columbia.