A wonderfully readable and fluently-illustrated graphic novel that warms the hearts.
The unpunctuated title "How to draw a secret" can be read as alterA wonderfully readable and fluently-illustrated graphic novel that warms the hearts.
The unpunctuated title "How to draw a secret" can be read as alternately a questioning lament against an unsurmountable task; or an instructional how-to. This book attempts to do both: The graphic novel paints the context of the family secret that 12-turning-13-year-old Cindy confronts and unravels and her struggle to draw "What family means" for a formal arts competition; but through its narrative, shows us how honesty, bravery and trust in the kindness of others is what exchanges the shadowy secrets and fears to a richer mix of experiences and life.
Narratively, the separation of Cindy's parents is the apparent "secret" that she has to put on the page, and the book offers an answer to that task. But the deeper secret that we all have is our lived experience and our own interior world, a lived experience that is forever locked and unknownable to others. This is the sneaky gnawl of inadequacy while seen as a model child; the snarl of loneliness in a rowdy tangle of siblings and friends; the tingle to feel different while eagerly fitting in. As an adult reader, perhaps that's the deeper question and unsurmountable task that I'm drawn to - what space and avenue is there that is kind enough to hold space and give voice to that secret story that lives in each of us?
Ultimately, I found this a well-executed story, and a beautifully drawn and produced graphic novel. This book belongs well to that literary canon of the autobiographical novel that every author eventually has to write. The settings of California and Taiwan are culturally anchored and relatable, and third-culture-children readers of immigrant families would find particular resonance with the story lines. Readers of the hardcover edition can take additional joy from the artwork on the boards (spoiler: tools required to draw a secret)....more
Overall, I really liked this book, there are definitely certain sections more moving than others, some sections more intellectually engaging than otheOverall, I really liked this book, there are definitely certain sections more moving than others, some sections more intellectually engaging than others.
In a strange way, this is a book that detracts from its self-proclaimed biographical instincts, it's struggling from the lived experience of the individual, grasping for the support theoretical frameworks of the inner halls of academia for sense-making; at the same time, it never fully resolves to a place of critical essays, finding repose within the nooks and crannies of self-absorbed shoe-gazing.
This is a collection that's confessional in its tone, private and unpolished; but well wraught and carefully edited at the same time. It feels at once like reading a handwritten dog-earred journal and a piece of literary writing assigned for a 200 level American studies class -- which is to say, it's probably well debated in the notional accords of the class, but the passages we savor the most we'll actually keep in the privacy of our own room.
For me, this is a book less about friendship than about youth, the kind of easy, taken for granted closeness that seems to emblematic of the carefree years; the kind that in this book, becomes preserved and honored because of its unexpected, unwarranted end....more
Li is a very technical writer, heavy-handed with craft and literary merit. After reading her fictionalized memoir WherAborted / skimmed part 3 (of 3).
Li is a very technical writer, heavy-handed with craft and literary merit. After reading her fictionalized memoir Where Reasons End, it is clear that fictionalized dialog is a comfortable form for Li. In this novel of 3 parts, the first 2 are "normal" first-person narratives, while the lengthy third part is epistolary form, a juxtaposition of annotations on the published diaries of a beloved.
We've gotten to know Lilia from the first half of the novel, a wickedly smart, sharp as whip 90+ years old, and she has a biting, incisive voice; peppered with wry insights on life befitting of her long long years (case in point: the pre-requisite of betrayal is a long long life). And it takes a writer of Li's craft to make such a one-sided monologue bearable. But I gave up during the epistolary portions because I really couldn't get into the character of Rolan (Lilia' worldly crush when she was a teenger and her first child's birth father). There's so much self-indulgence in his diaries (rightfully so, since they are diaries) that it really couldn't hold a reader's attention.
I imagine that the novel must be a great project to write, and an interesting piece to critique and analyze, but just not so great to read....more
There seems to be a growing space for this kind of spare, allegorical novels. Lots of empty space (quite literally) on the page. I have always thoughtThere seems to be a growing space for this kind of spare, allegorical novels. Lots of empty space (quite literally) on the page. I have always thought Eggers as a writer with great ideas and mediocre execution, but this novel bore the mark of maturity and restraint. Liked this little volume a lot better than some of his other fictional works....more
Beautifully and powerfully written, but didn't quite feel like it's quite there yet structurally as a novel.
The threaded narrative form seems3.5 stars
Beautifully and powerfully written, but didn't quite feel like it's quite there yet structurally as a novel.
The threaded narrative form seems to be gaining popularity as a structural form in place of the traditional saga, allowing writers to span place, time and cultures effortlessly in a short volume by threading disparate characters. In There, There, the Big Oakland Powwow is the final knots that tie the generations of characters who are intricately weaved through fate and bloodlines. But this knot feels a little more like a finishing bow than the metaphorical intricate beadworks or red strings that stand in for the inescapable fate, more a neat flourish than a convincing denouement.
Each individual story and character, however, stand firmly etched as standalone short stories or character studies (and of course not to forget the interlude of essays). Orange writes beautifully and hauntingly, in a voice that's befitting of the heavy subject he approaches. He has a way of writing about the voids, of obliqueness -- not of the bullet that tears through flesh, but the hole it leaves; the pain that's not there because it is all too real. And that ending sequence of imageries, of longing, of belonging -- to be, longing -- is sublime....more
There is something of a distinct voice in the contemporary female writers who arrive from a short story tradition - those who are willing to go into tThere is something of a distinct voice in the contemporary female writers who arrive from a short story tradition - those who are willing to go into the gritty, grimy underbelly of life, drawing our attention to those corners of drift that we witness and stop seeing -- the colorful wrapper and bottle caps that have accumulated in the crack of cement where a wild mint shoots up.
Rachel Khong's writing reminded me of Mosfegh's Eileen and Wang's Chemistry. They share the shift female narrator too wise for her age and therefore too despaired with the world. Khong writes,
A long time ago I stopped wondering why there were so many crazy people. What surprises me now is that there are so many sane ones.
What's surprising about Goodbye Vitamin, however, is Khong's eventual willingess to let sentimentalism bubble up in the most craftedly genuine way -- and I say that in the most complimentary way. Caring for a parent descending into senility is heartbreaking, and writing is an ultimate form of catharsis.
This is a work of fiction, and as a novelist, Khong has the privilege of craft, of distance, of a viewership to enlighten -- and in this she is successful. This slim volume is an emotional coller-coaster, not in its unending ups and downs (which there aren't), but in its long build-up of expectation, that drop you've been anticipating all along, but turns out to be all different, all too tender, too vulnerable, too inviting of introspection, so in that moment of breathlessness, when the heart seems too heavy and unable to bear its own weight, we're left wondering -- why did I ever doubt this humanity?
"There's nothing really to 'do'" he [the family physician] says. "Just be present." "Like in the moment?" I say. "I meant 'around,'" he says. "But sure, that, too."
It's hard to imagine how much transpired in 300 odd pages. Rather than a collection of short stories, I take The Tsar of Wow, just wow, what an epic.
It's hard to imagine how much transpired in 300 odd pages. Rather than a collection of short stories, I take The Tsar of Love and Techno as a novel of interlocking chapters and characters. Marra triumphs in his imaginative worlds -- richly textured, drenching in rich details and such fine attention to the boundaries of language. In the stark, deprived landscape of the Soviet regime and Chechen wars, Marra finds space for humor, fun, creativity, beauty -- beyond escapism, the deeply human binds of kinship, love, guilt, forgiveness, and grace. Every flawed character (and yes, everyone is flawed) feels deeply natural, human in its decrepit and wonderful, larger than life ways.
This reminded me of Homegoing, with its similar setup of linked chapters, and similarly epic ambitions within a rather slim volume. Freed from the sensitive subject matter of the Transatlantic slave trade and race, The Tsar of Love and Techno feels more playful, freer to explore the nicks and crannies. Yes, there are moments I wonder the inconsistencies: why some chapters in the third person and some in the first? Why the bow-tie chapter at the end (which I absolutely loved), and isn't it a bit too cute to actually include a mix tape (curated here on )? But really, I've swept off my feet the whole journey, the intricacies and space in this book are addictive. Definitely a book that I'll recommend again and again....more
There are books that hit you like an overly strong espresso, leaving you a little jittery, a little unsettled, as if something was lost... Fortune SmiThere are books that hit you like an overly strong espresso, leaving you a little jittery, a little unsettled, as if something was lost... Fortune Smiles was such a book for me.
Adam Johnson's Pulitzer-winning Orphan Master's Son came out while I was a student at Stanford, but I somehow never got around to reading that, so this collection is the first of Johnson's writing that I've encountered.
It's somewhat harder to say what went right than to say what went wrong, but this collection worked for me. The voices sounded authentic, despite being set in such disparate, far-flung and distant situation: some hit close: Palo Alto, tech companies; some are only stories: Stasi of East Germany, the Korean DMZ. The characters are always on the cusp, the ones who are not really in their bodies or the physicality of space-time, they are the ones who will ask "But then who would I be?" Johnson is an adept writer that understands the psychology of readers (at least mine) well, seeding enough markers amidst a sea of mysteries to keep me glued to the narratives. Despite being short stories, the attention to a single word (for example, 'activates') -- its sound and associations -- brings poetry to the page.
These are not easy stories to read, no feel-good resolutions. Johnson chooses the most difficult topics often at the edges of discourse: euthanasia, child pornography, war crimes and positions them from an angle that is just oblique enough to lead me in. There's Art that beautifies the grotesque not to deny its perversity, but to make it affable, and perhaps Fortune Smiles will be important in that way -- to bring discourse. This is a collection that belongs to the classroom, that demands discussion and unpacking; but in some ways, this is also a collection that belongs to the bedside, a quiet place to return to, to be unsettled in that human question of "But then who would I be?"...more
There is no shortage of world war II novels and no shortage of good ones. Having had the privilege to be Maria's student in college, I am definitely aThere is no shortage of world war II novels and no shortage of good ones. Having had the privilege to be Maria's student in college, I am definitely a biased reader, but Motherland is a treat, one that reminded me of the tenderness in Nemirovsky's Suite Française and the beauty of Doer's All the Light We Cannot See.
As a semi-autobiographical novel, Motherland is a piece that leverages on Maria's skills as a non-fictional writer and a poet. There are an openness and space in the narrative that is engaging but refreshing at the same time, a rare find in a topic as heavy as the ones addressed in this novel -- war, violence, atrocity, patriotism, sickness, guilt, regret, love. There is definitely threads that echo Hummel's own life story -- a sick child, a recently widowed grandfather with 3 young children who remarried in the years of war...
There's a great amount of tenderness and beauty in the novel, not as a denial of the gross darkness and ugly reality that surrounds us and the past, but perhaps as a way to heal -- for a reality that is as real, but more inhabitable....more
A typical coming of age story, with a twist of culture thrown into the mix. It was hard getting into the vernacular that the narrator adopts at the beA typical coming of age story, with a twist of culture thrown into the mix. It was hard getting into the vernacular that the narrator adopts at the beginning, but things flow progressively better as the novel unfolds. A feel-good, satisfying read of a David and Goliath story -- a boy who traveled half a war, undergoes all sorts of torture and insults and finally stoodup for himself. The characters often appear one-dimensional, cartoonish like the characters the narrator is enamored with, and that is what eventually left a little more to be desired from China Boy. ...more
Cook's world is an imaginative but strange one. It is marked by violence -- brutal, senseless, unchallenged; but also drenched in acceptance -- mild, Cook's world is an imaginative but strange one. It is marked by violence -- brutal, senseless, unchallenged; but also drenched in acceptance -- mild, unquestioning, total. The character's immersion into this gushing tide of destruction, a world that is distinctly base, yet somehow retains an inkling of humanity is what compels me, as a reader to break down my aversion to this illogical world -- a world where 10-year old children stoically face their death sentence to be "Processed," where a 20-month old baby stands taller than his mother whom he carries on his shoulder...
It takes a bold writer to carve out this world, but it also takes a level of sincerity, a frankness to open up the heart, to be vulnerable to the scorching sensibilities of the quotidian that makes this collection so endearing. It takes a little push to get around the bizzareness of your surrounding, but after finding one's footing, the collection is surprisingly heart-felt, alternating between sensuous and intellectual, warm and chilling, stretched to the core yet brimming with generosity. ...more
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