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Creative Arts Book
Company, CA
Softcover, 2000, 161
pages, US $13.95
ISBN: 0887397679
the faintest idea of what real fencing entails, and writes an aimless series of cuts and thrusts -- or the
author simply can't convey the swordplay convincingly. Rarer still are stories that include articulate,
intelligent, and accurate fencing, embedded in a compelling story, and told as if you were hearing it
from a fellow fencer...
This is the book!
Author Bill Pieper's collection of four tales of "love and deception" includes a sterling piece, built
around an old fencing master, his young protégé, and the details of a life gone awry. In "The
Willamette Kid", the confused young hero, John, with deep talent with the blade, finds himself awash
in a sea of self-created lies. Unable to determine who he really is, he creates minor fictions to please
those around him, and tears his life (and the lives of those he loves) apart. It is fencing, and a
familiar-seeming maitre d'arms, Hans, who help put him back on the path.
The flavor of this story is so genuine, so filled with the flow of the strategy and intellect of fencing,
that one is convinced that this author is a fencer -- from the time when fencing had beauty, meaning,
and art laced through it. A brief sample, when John and Hans first meet, conveys the feeling:
Each wanted the other to attack immediately, but each was too experienced to do so. John already knew
that Hans, like himself, was right-handed, and he noted that Hans favored the pronated grip. This
information helped John, who preferred a more supinated grip, decide what he should and should not
attempt. Hans was filing away the same information about John as they stalked one another up and down
the strip with feints, lunges, and retreats.
Hans made what John felt sure was a feint to the left as though he would come under John's foil for a
touch on the opposite side. Rather than react and leave himself open to counterattack, John faked the parry
for an instant, then snapped his wrist to bring the tip of his foil around in a blur of metal. Hans was
hundredths of a second late with his parry, allowing John a solid touch on Hans's right abdomen before
Hans's blade briefly slid against John's.
"Ja....touch. Very good. You are fast." Hans stepped back and squared himself. "En garde."
Ready for more? This story has it!
The remaining three tales are of other relationships shattered by deception, told with the same
clear and insightful voice.
We'd like to see other fiction by this author -- especially when fencing is used so convincingly.
