Unlike anything I've read before. As hard and as faceted as a gem. As beautiful.Unlike anything I've read before. As hard and as faceted as a gem. As beautiful....more
Kim Thuy's short novel, Man -- which reads like a series of connected vignettes or long poems -- is a beautiful story of the loss and reclamation of iKim Thuy's short novel, Man -- which reads like a series of connected vignettes or long poems -- is a beautiful story of the loss and reclamation of identity as shaped by and viewed through food, love, marriage, children, and tradition. It is a book that reminds us that the great disappointments and joys of life often come in the small gestures and statements, in the little mistakes, that we recognize only by the length of their shadows over us. This was a wonderfully evocative novel of Vietnamese culture, and of a woman's search to integrate her and her family's history with her own growing desires to live along an unpredicted path, for as long as that path carries her. A wonderful heartbreak of a book that is to be savored....more
Author Lim's later novel, Six Crimson Cranes might be a later-written novel that shows the author's growth, but Spin the Dawn has some startling momenAuthor Lim's later novel, Six Crimson Cranes might be a later-written novel that shows the author's growth, but Spin the Dawn has some startling moments of realism, magic, and romance to make an easy recommend to those interested in YA romance, tales of East Asian influenced folklore, and in a story of empowerment that never forgets to be human. Maia develops her understanding of her personal and magical worth throughout the novel, and readers become eager to see her at the height of her powers in Unravel the Dusk. With a duology this highly enjoyable and that is not afraid to be as playful as it is romantic, the only improvement I could suggest is if Lim started including illustrations of the clothes Maia makes. The descriptions of them, and in fact, the whole tailors' version of the Great British Bake Off here -- is wonderfully done....more
A wonder of the written word, if you think on it, is how the perfect book, the book you need most at a given moment, will find you -- something about A wonder of the written word, if you think on it, is how the perfect book, the book you need most at a given moment, will find you -- something about its first words, the scenes you draw from a few early passages: there is that magical sense that it was always meant to find you. Like meeting a friend for the first time whom you know you will always keep. This was my experience with the fantastical, fairy-tale-like Six Crimson Cranes, which I found compelling and breathtaking and dreamlike and a book I was hardly able to put down -- all beyond my ability to explain. But here I am, having sniffled my way through its last fifty pages, having been kept in suspense at the end of every chapter, having been caught up in something that could easily be classed as a-book-like-a-Disney-movie, when friends, what I want to tell you is that this is what the overmarketed world of Disney movies should better aspire to be: magical, even when that magic threatens; romantic but with great and necessary restraint; a story full of otherworldly characters in whom you see your own ambitions and fears and faults, and still love them deeply. I loved the steeped lore of this fantastical world. I love that I couldn't tell if it was based on the worlds of East Asian folklore or completely from the mind of Elizabeth Lim. This is a brand new novel that reads like a fable from centuries ago. This book is a gift, however old it is, and I am completely under its spell....more
Having grown up in Utah (as a family that was the other "m": military, not Mormon) so much of this book resonated with memories of our encounters withHaving grown up in Utah (as a family that was the other "m": military, not Mormon) so much of this book resonated with memories of our encounters with the more stringent aspects of Christian-based fundamentalism. Westover's characterizations also struck true for those who have encountered that ranging Western persona of the "man with an angle," or the hyper-erratic and hyper-violent relation, or the impossible to pin down people-pleaser whose true motivations are likely lost to themself. This book also strangely read like one long college admissions essay in which Westover hopes to win over not a university's but our our understanding of how unpredictable her upbringing was, and how too predictable her internalization of its problems became to the point that her successes, far superior to what an average person her age might achieve, come to seem as barely acceptable to define her identity within the constraints of her family. Compulsively readable, and at times utterly horrific, this is such a grounding read for individuals who grew up in the Intermountain West, where such families and experiences, and such attempts to escape them, seem as much as part of the mountainous landscape as the geographical heights that its inhabitants aspire equally to surmount. ...more
A novel full of the confused emotions and explorations of identity and physicality that come to define occasional lovers Marianne and Connell from secA novel full of the confused emotions and explorations of identity and physicality that come to define occasional lovers Marianne and Connell from secondary school to just after university. The book is achingly true of two people learning to better understand themselves through their on-and-off again relationship and their circling, as birds might circle, over a connection that isn't easy for themselves or others to define. While Marianne's explorations might have more immediate resonance to readers, it was the insight into Connell's efforts to better understand his needs that felt so deeply familiar and valuable to this male reader. ...more
An engaging mix of fantasy and sci-fi set in world that exudes the hierarchies and trappings of several unspecific Asian cultures (the publisher callsAn engaging mix of fantasy and sci-fi set in world that exudes the hierarchies and trappings of several unspecific Asian cultures (the publisher calls it "silkpunk"). Yang adds to this familiar-but-different setting an alternate view of gender recognition, in which children announce their affiliation, wherever it lie, when they come of age. This allows for a journey into twins' (Mokoya and Akeha) unity as children and the comforts and discomforts they begin to feel as each discovers their lifepath and political importance. It also gives the reader a way to engage with gender from a gradually clearer internal view rather than one based on the assumptions of presence or nomenclature. Yang's wonderful word economy keeps the pace quick and the turns sharp, making for an enjoyably dramatic and occasionally romantic ride as we follow the twins to the collision of populace and governance, sect and scepter, that have been simmering since their birth....more
Profoundly beautiful and achingly personal, Vuong's novel, written as a long letter to his mother, is so suffused with poetics that reading it feels lProfoundly beautiful and achingly personal, Vuong's novel, written as a long letter to his mother, is so suffused with poetics that reading it feels like a mix between witnessing a personal history in rapid flashes and slow walking through a near forgotten dream. A story of immigration, a filial confession, a queer awakening, and a musing on loss, the reach of On Earth brushes themes familiar to much in literature, but its accomplishment is singular and piercing. While the country renews its love for poetry (riding back to us, as it did, on the hem of Amanda Gorman's coat), this reader hopes more find their way to this readable, recitable novel from another poet who puts himself and his mother under his own delicate but unflinching eye....more
Alternating between the voice of her unaffected youth and that of her established adulthood, collagist Avery explores her identity and long-term desirAlternating between the voice of her unaffected youth and that of her established adulthood, collagist Avery explores her identity and long-term desires alongside the demands of both a traditionalist, working class family and the expectations of the white community in which she's immersed. Avery's examinations of class and the childhood friends who challenge her preconceptions make for a genuine and empathetic telling. Whatever the book may miss in ultimate scope, it more than makes up for in sincerity and immediacy of the circle of community it engages us in....more
A horror story whose connection to Blackfeet cultural lore adds a both darker, more sinister purpose to its telling, and a mystical sort of realism thA horror story whose connection to Blackfeet cultural lore adds a both darker, more sinister purpose to its telling, and a mystical sort of realism that makes the fantastic here more believable than one might see elsewhere in the genre. The suspension of disbelief is easier to give over to The Only Good Indians, because Jones is playing jarring chords from the already existent notes of just killings, the balance of life, the weaknesses and the strengths of the innocent. This was a rewarding novel in many ways -- aspects hard to mention with out the suggestion of a spoiler -- and a great book to read in the dark alone, or on a gray, hopeless, winter's day, where the landscape invites you to question your motives, those actions you took, and the pause you never gave to either....more
An expansive, enlightening, haunting, awakening, and necessary collection of stories form voices continually suppressed, silenced, and ignored in AmerAn expansive, enlightening, haunting, awakening, and necessary collection of stories form voices continually suppressed, silenced, and ignored in American culture and political life. Cleary a direct result of the American current and Trump's small-minded xenophobia -- alongside his willingness (or cognitive inability) to project beyond a toddler's understanding of identity and authentic representation -- the stories here sometimes call the mouse by name, and sometimes pantomime his behaviors in broad strokes -- which are probably the only kinds of letters President Trump knows how to read. This book is vital and forward thinking but never too far ahead to see the genuine dangers of the Infant King. If only one book survives the Trump era, a likelier prospect by the day, then this should be it. This is a book that marks our horrible time, and the voices that will survive it....more
A challenging novel for its use of theoretical physics as metaphor for what can be already challenging themes of identity, political history, and the A challenging novel for its use of theoretical physics as metaphor for what can be already challenging themes of identity, political history, and the superimposition of generations atop one another in central character Su Lan's theory on the fourth dimension of time. But it is this very complexity that makes the novel so remarkable -- that in addition to our (Western) expectations of a fluid identity, we learn that the path, posited late in the novel, is not what we would commonly expect to be circular, but globular: moving across continents and histories as well as within families, long friendships, and an individual's self-identification. These roles and views telescope and contract within the boundaries of the novel to create simultaneously a sense of poetic order to daughter Liya's desire to know her parents, and an aching sense of chaos from recognizing how much lay beyond the character's ability to grapple and name. Some aspects of this novel were coldly beautiful, but this reader left the story feeling as if its truest meanings were opaque to his understanding. There are greater ideas in here, discernable for the shadows they leave on a reader, but the book demands as many eyes upon it as it has sides....more