REVIEW: True Fiction by Sohrab Homi Fracis

Short Fiction. 96 pgs. Texas A&M University Press. October 2022. 978-1-62288-932-7.

Disclaimer: The opening story of True Fiction appears in our book 15 Views of Jacksonville and the manuscript was named a finalist in our 2021 Fiction Prize.

The title story of True Fiction begins with an acknowledgement: Sohrab Homi Fracis tends to write autobiographical fiction. This reader would argue that all writers—at least in the literary sphere—write autobiographical fiction, but it is certainly true that Fracis’s work feels even more close to “home.”

Those familiar with the work of Fracis will recognize that unmistakable style, but for this reader, it was the experimentation that stood out most of all. Maybe it was because both “Open Mic” and “All Right, Now, Cupid” were written for separate anthologies, or maybe Fracis is simply finding a new footing as a writer.

“Family Tree” is essentially a poem. “A Coming” is a tale about a plain fairy who comes of age in a world different from our own and “The Legend of Rostam and Sohrab” includes the author’s name in the title, but couldn’t possibly be about the author himself—or could it? Does it matter?

Reading True Fiction feels like a treatise on fiction, on humanity, on identity as an artform.

“I’m not saying anyone in this story, young or old, is a monster. I am saying we’re all complicated.”

And thus the new collection goes. Full of complications that reflect what it means to be a person.

“Steven Miller is watching TV with his wife and kids when he realizes he is becoming a woman,” begins the fourth story in the collection.  It includes the line “He’s the new owner of a pristine vagina,” and I laughed. It was a welcome laugh and it felt freeing to do so while reading literary fiction in 2022.

Fracis has a point of view, but he isn’t interested in catering to what others believe his point of view should be. I go back to “A Coming” and this idea of “truth.”  What role does imagination play in sharing something true? How does our obsession or disregard of “truth” operate as an obstacle to craft?

As Sohrab Homi Fracis illustrates in his new book, he is writing the stories he wants to tell. He is sharing what he believes to be true, whether we agree with it or not.

Throughout the years, what continues to be admirable about Fracis’s work is his ability to thread the familiar and unfamiliar. He doesn’t apologize for the unshared experience nor does he make it a point to alienate his reader. The goal is never to elevate. It is only to share.

And I thank him for sharing True Fiction with us.