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w0rmonastring's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
an incredibly imaginative collection of stories where the seemingly innocuous moments of life in cities across the us take a turn for the surreal. ma’s writing is undeniably creative but a lot of these stories either left me wanting a fully fleshed out piece where concepts are fully explored or on the opposite end, not sure which concepts are meant to be being explored at all. there’s also not enough of a connecting thread through each of these stories for my taste, but i am eagerly looking forward to picking up Severance and exploring ma’s long-form work.
“What if I dissected my feelings, pulled them apart and brutalized them so that he would know they were true? Is this enough? … They would explode and drip over everything like bodily fluids and finally he’d be forced to look away.”
- from Los Angeles
“‘I never gave you my heart,’ you told me, two days before you got into that bike accident, breaking three ribs and your ancient, Germanic clavicles. If your body had been broken beyond repair, I would have paid them to pluck out those bones for me — me before all others…”
- from Yeti Lovemaking
“‘Ice cream is my favorite food.’ I write these words in the journal my mother gives me to record my first days in the US. English is just a play language to me, the words tethered to their meanings by the loosest, most tenuous connections. So it's easy to lie. I tell the truth in Chinese, I make up stories in English. I don't take it that seriously … It is the language in which I have nothing to lose, even if they don't believe a thing I say.”
- from Peking Duck
“What if I dissected my feelings, pulled them apart and brutalized them so that he would know they were true? Is this enough? … They would explode and drip over everything like bodily fluids and finally he’d be forced to look away.”
- from Los Angeles
“‘I never gave you my heart,’ you told me, two days before you got into that bike accident, breaking three ribs and your ancient, Germanic clavicles. If your body had been broken beyond repair, I would have paid them to pluck out those bones for me — me before all others…”
- from Yeti Lovemaking
“‘Ice cream is my favorite food.’ I write these words in the journal my mother gives me to record my first days in the US. English is just a play language to me, the words tethered to their meanings by the loosest, most tenuous connections. So it's easy to lie. I tell the truth in Chinese, I make up stories in English. I don't take it that seriously … It is the language in which I have nothing to lose, even if they don't believe a thing I say.”
- from Peking Duck
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Terminal illness
snowwhitehatesapples's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Also on Snow White Hates Apples.
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Curious, surreal and, in some ways, resonating, Bliss Montage is a collection of eight short stories led by lonely protagonists exploring topics we’re all familiar with: love, loss, alienation, dislocation, family, identity, desire and more.
Beginning with ‘Los Angeles’ , this short story with a seemingly unassuming title immediately sheds its modest skin with an opener explaining the narrator’s living situation with her husband, their children, and her 100 ex-boyfriends. Everything appears to be fine and dandy until her exes start leaving, breaking the utopian fantasy glass castle they had. In this way, the title becomes perfect as this short story portrays a duality akin to the one of the City of Angels where its reality isn’t as dreamy as its name.
‘Oranges' as the follow-up (or more accurately, the prequel) to ‘Los Angeles’ doesn’t have as strong of a magical realism aspect to it, but it remains impactful. An orange, in Chinese culture, means prosperity, abundance and happiness. The roundness of the fruit symbolises togetherness, and in fengshui, oranges can bring good luck and fortune. So, to contrast this positive symbolism of oranges with the pain and trauma of having been in an abusive relationship makes the story more stark and multilayered.
‘G’ , on the other hand, is a clear allegory (under the obvious one about drugs) that represents the two sides of a coin for children of immigrants. Here, we have a narrator who rebelled against her immigrant Chinese mother’s expectations and successfully shed the limitations of having to be perfect — to be all that her parents couldn’t be, to be the embodiment of proving that their sufferings and hardships weren’t wasted. Not as lucky is her old friend Bonnie, who consumes G to become invisible (open and vulnerable too) and thus, free from the obligations binding her. This story ultimately takes a sinister turn as Bonnie finally obtains the freedom she desires.
The fourth short story, ‘Yeti Lovemaking’ has the strangest title of them all yet it’s completely relatable. Everyone wears a different mask (or in this case, skin) for different occasions, situations, societies, etc. Consequently, it can become normal for some to not even show their true selves because not everyone is accepting or understanding. So, the moment the Yeti here finds someone willing to be with him at their most vulnerable state? You bet he’s going to hold on to this connection for as long and as much as he can.
Following this is ‘Returning’ wherein we have an introspective on a multitude of themes from the books written by the characters and from the short story itself. From being trapped by expectations to immigrant identity, we go through these themes as we navigate the story of a narrator who cheated on her husband, her husband’s desire to be reborn, and the festival of his homeland where people are buried alive and those who return, return anew.
‘Office Hours’ , as the sixth short story, explores the complexity of desire, the stressors of modern life that make true happiness and peace seemingly unattainable, along with how reality can make one lonely and untethered at times. Here, we have the narrator who’s achieving her professional goals and yet, she finds herself constantly exploring the alternate reality her deceased university professor introduced to her, taking comfort in how time doesn’t move there.
Perhaps the one where Ling Ma expresses most directly her views on immigrant culture, ‘Peking Duck’ revolves around a first-generation Asian American, her Chinese immigrant mother and their discussion on who certain stories belong to. While the daughter may have been present in certain events of her mother’s life, this doesn’t explicitly mean the story the daughter tells is hers. Hence, the resentment toward the child for using a mother’s personal struggles as part of their identity and stories. This also leads to a pivot from the daughter’s POV to the mother’s POV in the end, though we can’t tell if it’s truly the mother’s recollection of what happened in the past or if it’s the daughter’s rendition.
The collection ends with ‘Tomorrow’ wherein a pregnant woman finds herself with a baby boy mostly developing in her womb, minus his arm that’s sticking outside of her body. In a way, this is a metaphor for how nightmarish and terrifying motherhood can be. In another, it shows how easily and quickly others will shun anyone they deem abnormal.
Everything considered, this is a clever collection of short stories that require careful attention and inspection of the many meanings hidden between the lines. It’s not one that you can just breeze through, which was what I attempted the first time round and that left me confused as too many things flew over my head. Truly, I think the best way to read Bliss Montage is with a mind ready to dissect the text because Ling Ma is brilliant at distorting reality by injecting fantasy elements while questioning and reflecting on what makes humans human.
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Curious, surreal and, in some ways, resonating, Bliss Montage is a collection of eight short stories led by lonely protagonists exploring topics we’re all familiar with: love, loss, alienation, dislocation, family, identity, desire and more.
Beginning with ‘Los Angeles’ , this short story with a seemingly unassuming title immediately sheds its modest skin with an opener explaining the narrator’s living situation with her husband, their children, and her 100 ex-boyfriends. Everything appears to be fine and dandy until her exes start leaving, breaking the utopian fantasy glass castle they had. In this way, the title becomes perfect as this short story portrays a duality akin to the one of the City of Angels where its reality isn’t as dreamy as its name.
‘Oranges' as the follow-up (or more accurately, the prequel) to ‘Los Angeles’ doesn’t have as strong of a magical realism aspect to it, but it remains impactful. An orange, in Chinese culture, means prosperity, abundance and happiness. The roundness of the fruit symbolises togetherness, and in fengshui, oranges can bring good luck and fortune. So, to contrast this positive symbolism of oranges with the pain and trauma of having been in an abusive relationship makes the story more stark and multilayered.
‘G’ , on the other hand, is a clear allegory (under the obvious one about drugs) that represents the two sides of a coin for children of immigrants. Here, we have a narrator who rebelled against her immigrant Chinese mother’s expectations and successfully shed the limitations of having to be perfect — to be all that her parents couldn’t be, to be the embodiment of proving that their sufferings and hardships weren’t wasted. Not as lucky is her old friend Bonnie, who consumes G to become invisible (open and vulnerable too) and thus, free from the obligations binding her. This story ultimately takes a sinister turn as Bonnie finally obtains the freedom she desires.
The fourth short story, ‘Yeti Lovemaking’ has the strangest title of them all yet it’s completely relatable. Everyone wears a different mask (or in this case, skin) for different occasions, situations, societies, etc. Consequently, it can become normal for some to not even show their true selves because not everyone is accepting or understanding. So, the moment the Yeti here finds someone willing to be with him at their most vulnerable state? You bet he’s going to hold on to this connection for as long and as much as he can.
Following this is ‘Returning’ wherein we have an introspective on a multitude of themes from the books written by the characters and from the short story itself. From being trapped by expectations to immigrant identity, we go through these themes as we navigate the story of a narrator who cheated on her husband, her husband’s desire to be reborn, and the festival of his homeland where people are buried alive and those who return, return anew.
‘Office Hours’ , as the sixth short story, explores the complexity of desire, the stressors of modern life that make true happiness and peace seemingly unattainable, along with how reality can make one lonely and untethered at times. Here, we have the narrator who’s achieving her professional goals and yet, she finds herself constantly exploring the alternate reality her deceased university professor introduced to her, taking comfort in how time doesn’t move there.
Perhaps the one where Ling Ma expresses most directly her views on immigrant culture, ‘Peking Duck’ revolves around a first-generation Asian American, her Chinese immigrant mother and their discussion on who certain stories belong to. While the daughter may have been present in certain events of her mother’s life, this doesn’t explicitly mean the story the daughter tells is hers. Hence, the resentment toward the child for using a mother’s personal struggles as part of their identity and stories. This also leads to a pivot from the daughter’s POV to the mother’s POV in the end, though we can’t tell if it’s truly the mother’s recollection of what happened in the past or if it’s the daughter’s rendition.
The collection ends with ‘Tomorrow’ wherein a pregnant woman finds herself with a baby boy mostly developing in her womb, minus his arm that’s sticking outside of her body. In a way, this is a metaphor for how nightmarish and terrifying motherhood can be. In another, it shows how easily and quickly others will shun anyone they deem abnormal.
Everything considered, this is a clever collection of short stories that require careful attention and inspection of the many meanings hidden between the lines. It’s not one that you can just breeze through, which was what I attempted the first time round and that left me confused as too many things flew over my head. Truly, I think the best way to read Bliss Montage is with a mind ready to dissect the text because Ling Ma is brilliant at distorting reality by injecting fantasy elements while questioning and reflecting on what makes humans human.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Dysphoria, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity
quesatiya's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, and Racism
Moderate: Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Body horror, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Cancer
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