JO LENNAN In the Time of Foxes. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
Predator or prey? Jo Lennan’s debut collection of stories lures the reader into a world where foxes can mean many things.
In 2011, when the London Shard was under construction, workers were stunned to discover a fox had taken up residence on the skyscraper’s 72nd floor.
The fox, who had been living on the scraps of food left behind by the builders, managed to evade capture for two weeks before finally being trapped and released into the wild.
Foxes are experts when it comes to survival. In Europe, the tradition of hunting foxes for sport goes back centuries. When colonisers left for Australia and America, they took foxes and hunting dogs with them. But foxes had the last laugh, quickly making themselves at home in their new surroundings. Almost everywhere you find humans, you’ll find foxes there too.
Wollongong author Jo Lennan’s debut short story collection In the Time of Foxes whisks the reader around the world, introducing a staggeringly international cast of characters. In London, Nina, a filmmaker, becomes increasingly agitated when a family of foxes moves into her backyard. In Spain, an Australian and his Italian cousin drive along the coast in search of waves, arguing the whole way. In Japan, a young woman escapes the cult in which she was raised, and in Hong Kong, a doctor returns home and is perplexed to find her ex-boyfriend has not only moved in with her mum, but is living like a king.
Lennan’s stories are set all over the world, but it’s the presence of foxes that connects them all, like a set of tracks leading – or luring – the reader from one story to the next.
In some, a fox makes the briefest of appearances: a strip club called The Den, or an older lover nicknamed the Silver Fox. In others, the fox has already passed by. In ‘The Understudy’, Holly, an actress, is late to an important cast meeting when she discovers her pet rabbit’s mangled body beside the front gate.
And then there are moments when Lennan’s characters find themselves unexpectedly face to face with the creature itself – in the case of ‘Joyride’, on the streets of Sydney:
You never saw them in the city. And yet here was this one, going about its business as I went about mine.
[…]
It was a winter fox. Thin and ratty-looking. There was a hunger in its features that I somehow recognised. A solitary creature, it knew how to be alone. It looked at me like it knew me, like I was no sort of surprise, just a regular customer, no biggie. Like it was seeing an old acquaintance. And maybe we did know each other, this fox and I. It regarded me with intent, as if willing me to remember some old, half-buried knowledge – some pact of long ago.
In this collection, the fox can be a messenger, a trickster, an omen – or just a fox, animal and unknowable. Even in its absence, the fox is still present.
In addition to the actual foxes stalking the pages of this collection, many of Lennan’s characters have fox-like qualities. These are stories about survival, about people just trying to get by, and the sometimes cruel or selfish decisions we make in order to do so. In the title story, Nina’s backyard is overrun with foxes. She makes arrangements with a neighbour to have them removed while she, her husband and their young son are away, but it’s a decision she regrets almost as soon as it’s made.
There’s no shortage of flawed characters. ‘The Best Left in Europe’ is about Damien and Max, two cousins on a surfing trip through Spain. When Max nearly drowns, Damien swims away rather than coming to his rescue, reasoning that Max could easily drag them both under. As the road trip continues, an intense rivalry grows between the two that culminates in an act of violence. In other stories, Lennan presents her flawed characters in a more sympathetic way. ‘Day Zero’, set in a future colony on Mars, Sebastian finds out he has an untreatable tumour and becomes wrapped in self-pity. When a friend dies, he has an epiphany, and insists on leaving the memorial to support another friend, telling his horrified girlfriend that ‘life is … for whoever is still here’.
While many of Lennan’s stories are about fox-like people, they are not always told from the point of view of the predator. Some characters become the prey. While the fox is known for its wisdom, in Lennan’s world, people aren’t always fully aware of what’s going on around them until it’s too late. Or they just don’t care. In ‘The Understudy’, Holly is cast in a Chekov play along with her rival, Genevieve. The last time Holly and Genevieve worked together, three years ago, Holly was called in at the last minute when Genevieve suddenly pulled out. Now, working together again, Holly jealously bullies Genevieve – until she finds out the real reason why Genevieve quit. ‘Had she been wilfully blind to what she didn’t want to know?’ the story asks of Holly.
Though she pushes around some heavy themes, there’s a lightness to Lennan’s writing. Her distinctive, conversational style remains consistent, and helps these stories, with their dizzying array of settings and characters, to cohere. There are a few rare moments where she breaks the mould – in ‘Catch and Release’, there’s a section that’s narrated from the perspective of a forest. And the final story in the collection, ‘High Country’, is set in a small country town and reads like a pastiche of Australian literary fiction.
It’s important not to let the foxes distract you. These are stories about behaviour that’s all too human, and the awkward, awful things we do just to survive. When the way we live is suddenly under threat, when things change quickly, we must adapt. Jo Lennan is a crafty observer of human nature and In the Time of Foxes shows us she’s definitely a writer to keep an eye on.
Jo Lennan In the Time of Foxes Simon & Schuster 2020 PB 304pp $29.99
Michelle McLaren lives in Melbourne with her partner, two cats and way too many books. You can follow her on Twitter.
You can buy In the Time of Foxes from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here or you can buy it from Booktopia here.
To see if it is available from Newtown Library, click here.
