A popular childhood pet, the hermit crab holds its distinction by finding new home shells as it grows. It was this unique creature that inspired author Brenda Miller to coin the name “hermit crab essays”. This was for the creative nonfiction writing that borrows the form of another type of writing, such as applications, to-do lists, or obituaries. These types of essays keep a vulnerable internal message in the rigid restraints of the external shell, just like the creature of which they share the name.
Kim Adrian brings together a collection of these essays in The Shell Game. The book encompasses a wide variety of authors, topics, and of course, forms of writing. This provides readers with a new perspective of how writing can be expressed in nontraditional ways. The way the information is presented becomes a part of the story and shows things that may not be understood through an explicit explanation.
What ties the collection together is the idiosyncratic nature of each piece. Where else can you include an essay written through a pie recipe than also among ones done through trivia cards and OK Cupid profiles? The individuality of each one pushes the reader to consider why this story and why this form. All of the topics were ones that are difficult to express accurately in a direct way. The authors leaned on the shell their writing took to help them express an emotion or perspective. These essays were enhanced by their structure and would have been hindered had they been produced in a more traditional form.
The Shell Game does a beautiful job of exemplifying this reasonably new form of essay. This collection showcases a wide variety of shells, as well as tone of stories. The book starts with the essay “Grand Theft Auto,” written as a police report by Joey Franklin. It brings a fairly lighthearted tone to a thought-provoking story of the author’s car being stolen and how they pieced together what happened by what was left. The journey is threaded by Franklin’s debate of how he feels that his car has been stolen, saying, “we were sad to see it go. But not really. And now we were happy to get it back. But not really.” (Franklin 10). Framing the story through a police report juxtaposes the very real crime with Franklin’s internal feelings of the event. In “Solving My Way to Grandma”, author Laurie Easter tells the story of her daughter’s unexpected pregnancy through a literal puzzle of crossword clues. This piece brought engagement to a whole new level, forcing the reader to actually solve a crossword to get the key terms from the author’s story, perhaps similar to the puzzling feelings and processing Easter had to do when confronted with the unanticipated situation. And in a progression of growth, Brenda Miller moves through several milestones through a series of rejection letters, ending with the hopeful note of a success confirmation letter in her essay “We Regret to Inform You.” These are just a few highlights, among many others.
The Shell Game also successfully showcases how multifaceted this form of writing is. It is set up with a hermit crab essay of its own to introduce the reader to the idea written by Kim Adrian. Many distinct voices are heard through the different pieces and demonstrate how writing can be explored and the envelope can be pushed through storytelling. “#miscarriage.exe” by Ingrid Jendrzejewski tells Jendrzejewski’s experience of a miscarriage through computer code. This blocky and disjointed form reflects the author’s processing of a traumatic event. There is also a piece done entirely through pointed questions never answered, titled “Questionnaire for my Grandfather”, by Kim Adrian. Adrian’s relationship with her grandfather and the story of his impact on her family is exemplified through revealing and poignant format, “Do you consider your youngest daughter’s death a suicide? Do you consider yourself in any way responsible for that death? How did you die? Were you lonely? Were you sad?” (Adrian 157-158). The Shell Game fully utilizes the unique style in every way possible, including the final essay being embedded in the contributor biographies.
As with any collection of pieces, not every story will speak to all readers. The advantage of the diversity included may also be seen as a downfall to some. The wide variety of topics and styles will appeal to different audiences. Given the atypical nature of the collection, this amplifies the hit-or-miss aspect of the reader’s experience. The flipside of this is that with such variety, it is likely to find at least a few that spark some excitement.
Borrowed form essays allow authors to convey more than the words on the page. The Shell Game shines a light on many ways these different forms can be used to support a meaningful story. Hermit crab essays give writers and readers an opportunity to challenge the traditional sense of storytelling, and The Shell Game highlights the success this can have. It is an excellent example of a fresh look at writing and serves as a lovely and approachable introduction to this style of essay.
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