Book Review : Tiffany Scandal - Jigsaw Youth (2015)

Order JIGSAW YOUTH here

She turned to me, tearing up, and said it. I love you.

I kissed her forehead and held her closer. I didn't say anything back.

We'd know each other less than a week.

I receive a lot of questions from readers about what are my criteria for reviewing fiction. It's both simple and not. A great book would have to first be technically sound: be told in a unique, arresting voice, have an original angle on its themes and most importantly remain as unpredictable as possible. But the real standout, unforgettable novels capture my mind and my heart both. They have this unspeakable quality that makes me lose my shit. I was not expecting Tiffany Scandal's second novel JIGSAW YOUTH to have this effect on me. After all, rocker chicks from the West Coast and I have, at first sight, very little in common. But what the fuck do I know, right? JIGSAW YOUTH turned out to be one of the best novels I've read this year and there's a million things I want to say about it.

JIGSAW YOUTH is a novel-in-stories, built from several short stories that highlight key moments in the upbringing of Ella, a young, marginal and free spirited woman, trying to figure out early adulthood. Some of the stories, including the first two RED LIPS and YOUR SCENT are intense, emotional reads that'll reach out to any readers with a beating heart and other like HENRY ROLLINS WALKS INTO A BAR and RAZORBLADE SKY are about forging and developing a relationship with your inner self, learning how to draw meaning from your experiences. As a quiet, lonely intellectual type, I've related to almost every story in JIGSAW YOUTH, one way or another. Even if you don't though, there is still plenty of compelling aspects to this deceptively complex novel for you to obsess over.

Introspective novel are difficult to write, because it's difficult to make strangers care about what's important to you. Tiffany Scandal pulls it off out of the sheer standout quality of her writing. She's got that rare sophistication to her writing where she can boil down emotionally complex moment in one sentence or two. I don't get emotional all that often when reading fiction, but when it happens it's usually simple and spontaneous things that get me. There are a couple key moments like like in JIGSAW YOUTH, but there is one particularly in RED LIPS, some kind of ultimate moment of empathy and kindness in fiction, where emotion just blossom off the page. I live to read things like this.

Another example of the sophistication of Tiffany Scandal's writing can be found in the story HENRY ROLLINS WALKS INTO A BAR. I think everybody here is aware of my connection to Rollins' artistic output, so I had high expectations for that story. What I found was one of the more peaceful and intimate stories in the novel, up until that moment where Scandal just nails what Rollins is all about and why he is so beloved in one simple sentence. The great majority of authors try so hard to be moving, wind up their emotional moments through several pages, but Tiffany Scandal seems to make it happen organically. The reader just stumbles upon their moments of beauty unprepared, multiplying their power. I don't think it's something you can develop, I think it's a gift certain authors have to just nail the essence of things and Scandal is one of the chosen few.

I look at her, my grandmother, and picture the stories picking at her head. Stories she won't ever tell me because she thinks I'm too young to be disappointed by this world. I wonder how her life would've been different if she had been taught about feminism in a positive light. How different these messages would be if she saw herself as an equal to the man that she married.

Let's not forget about the feminist themes in JIGSAW YOUTH. There are explicit feminist passages, like in the story SUBSERVIENCE for example, but what I thought was really convincing was the accurate details Tiffany Scandal used to support her argument. For example, there are very little male characters in JIGSAW YOUTH and ever fewer relevant ones. Of course, the fact that Ella is gay has something to do with this, but I think it was a clever narrative choice: despite what we like to think about ourselves,  men aren't an important variable in the feminist equation and JIGSAW YOUTH explores themes of womanhood and self-reliance without being antagonizing or confrontational. Not that confrontation is a bad thing, but I thought it was refreshing to read feminist fiction that focuses a woman and her struggle for self-determination. Ella's voice a universal quality. It speaks a language anybody can understand and empathize with.

There are still so many things about JIGSAW YOUTH I'd want to tell you about, but I'd fall into rambling and spoilers. After all, it's a short novel and I wouldn't want to alter your experience of it (at least not too much). It is magnificently well-written though. Tiffany Scandal's lean and sophisticated writing style is a calling card that'll appeal to anybody. I had a hunch JIGSAW YOUTH would be good (because there's a certain standard of quality to Broken River Books and its sister imprints' output), but I would lie if I'd tell you I thought I'd react so violently to a short feminist novel. JIGSAW YOUTH is one of the highlights of my reading year, so far. Tiffany Scandal is a new force to be reckoned with in contemporary literature. It's without hesitation that I proclaim this novel to be...


BADASS