life rattle show no. 1353

Presented on saturday, september 19, 2015

hosted by Laurie Kallis

featuring

"Puffer"
"Heat"
and
"Exodus"
by Erica May Farazi

tonight's Show

features three stories from new Life Rattle writer Erica May Farazi.

Erica May Farazi was born in Toronto in 1995. At the age of ten, she was lured to the suburbs of Mississauga with the promise of a big house and a dog. She now has two dogs, a younger brother and an insatiable desire to return to the city she loves. Erica May is notorious for asking strangers for their birthday and judging them by their sign. She is a Gemini sun with her moon in Pisces. Erica May Farazi likes disjointed prose, salmon, cheesecake, the rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot, analogies, horror movies, thrift shopping, milk tea, bubble tea, being really funny, being a bad influence, and getting emotional when she holds dogs.

Erica May Farazi writes sparkling prose. She presents her narratives with sharp precision that can mislead you with their simplicity. Don’t be fooled. The stories we will hear tonight are the work of a talented writer who understands how to make every word count. The ease and natural flow of these stories can lull you, and then you realize that, pow, you have been struck by a fully fleshed-out story—a story that will stay with you, resurfacing time and again, causing you to reflect on its many facets—all communicated in startlingly few words.

"Puffer" opens with the relatively common scene of a mother and her young daughter walking together from the doctor’s to a drug store to pick up a prescription, and then returning home. But listen closely, because there are details slipped into this story that will snap you to attention. Details you probably won’t expect. Certainly not when you are seeing through the eyes of a six-year-old girl.

"Heat" takes place a little later in our narrator’s young life. A daughter, a picture perfect introduction to her father, an expanded view of her mother, a plate of lamb and rice and a bright red chili pepper all come together in this playfully wicked tale of culture and spice, and dares not so nice.

"Exodus" moves us several years forward in the life of our narrator. She is about to graduate from high school, and she and the rest of her graduating class are determined that their final day will be long remembered at their Catholic high school, in an appropriately biblical fashion.