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Usually, with short story collection, I consider it a good collection if I like at least half of the stories. This collection didn’t have a single miss for me. Each one fascinated and drew me in.
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I really loved this, but my favorites were The House of Aunts, If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Try Again, and The Terracotta Bride.
adventurous
funny
Oh man. This book is so full of gems. And their worlds all seem so full of people’s lives who intersect, both in and beyond the narrative, and with things that go explained and unexplained the way people’s lives do, and there’s just so much capacity for fucking around here—these stories feel both homey and worldly, both intimate and everywhere in a way I can’t explain. And a lot of them are really good love stories to boot. I especially liked when the stories were linked together or the story of one character was continued into the next piece like the pair of lion dance stories or the stories about Angela (Pik Mun) and Prudence Ong. These stories also sit in the clear wake of war and colonialism and yet never settle on east answers about the lives we have to live in the wake of violence and the forces that continue to smash our lives together. Makes me think a lot about what I want my own writing to be—here’s a bunch of scrambled notes on all that:
The things that parade around you casually, flowing in and out of the world
* the lion dance stories, for example, or the cat story or the fairy story >> just how it all is, all the confluence of the world together, unexplained sometimes. Just left there hanging…that’s what I want to make, a vision like that…
* The crowded sense to these stories, full of people and full of different settings and images and really letting you see it and keep turning your head…mine always feel so stark and empty, like the people around you are explicitly against you or distanced from you if they’re not already your friends. What happens to charmed moments with strangers?
* Also these stories are hella funny and full of sass and have such expansive views and potentials of how their characters think and are (not restricted to one mode of rational humanity) and I love it
* Like the imugi story…dragon girlboss self-help book but also a really sweet love story?
* The love letter of a woman as a house
* and the Chang E story and the story about the terra cotta wife—stories with souls and a set of ethics about them but not set answers
The things that parade around you casually, flowing in and out of the world
* the lion dance stories, for example, or the cat story or the fairy story >> just how it all is, all the confluence of the world together, unexplained sometimes. Just left there hanging…that’s what I want to make, a vision like that…
* The crowded sense to these stories, full of people and full of different settings and images and really letting you see it and keep turning your head…mine always feel so stark and empty, like the people around you are explicitly against you or distanced from you if they’re not already your friends. What happens to charmed moments with strangers?
* Also these stories are hella funny and full of sass and have such expansive views and potentials of how their characters think and are (not restricted to one mode of rational humanity) and I love it
* Like the imugi story…dragon girlboss self-help book but also a really sweet love story?
* The love letter of a woman as a house
* and the Chang E story and the story about the terra cotta wife—stories with souls and a set of ethics about them but not set answers
Please consider some of my favourite quotes from the best short story collection I've read in a long time:
Like, absolutely s-tier, really gripping and very funny. I especially liked "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" (sapphic dragon x human romance about not giving up on your dreams?), "House of Aunts" (teenage vampire tries to stop her aunts from eating her crush), "The Fish Bowl" (some absolutely horrifying imagery of a flesh-eating koi fish that will live in my brain rent-free for the rest of my life), and "Prudence and the Dragon" (dragon boi cannot kidnap maiden without her consent in the 21st century)
"The first time she saw the boy across the classroom, Ah lee knew she was in love because she tasted durian on her tongue. That was what happened–no poetry about it. She looked at a human boy one day and the creamy, rank richness of durian filled her mouth."
"There were a lot of unexpected things about being dead. The traffic was one of them."
"Because Prudence Ong never read newspapers or watched British TV, she maintained a spotlessly pure ignorance of the dragon throughout. She encountered the dragon in a rather more traditional setting. She met him down the pub.
Like, absolutely s-tier, really gripping and very funny. I especially liked "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" (sapphic dragon x human romance about not giving up on your dreams?), "House of Aunts" (teenage vampire tries to stop her aunts from eating her crush), "The Fish Bowl" (some absolutely horrifying imagery of a flesh-eating koi fish that will live in my brain rent-free for the rest of my life), and "Prudence and the Dragon" (dragon boi cannot kidnap maiden without her consent in the 21st century)
This would be my first Zen Cho book (and my first local read in quite a while).
Spirits Abroad is a collection of short stories about spirits of every kind - orang bunian, toyols, dragons, fairies, etc.
As a Malaysian (or if you're familiar with the Malaysian myths and legends), these stories will leave you in stitches. As someone who isn't Malaysian/familiar with the myths and legends, they might leave you slightly confused.
What I loved about most of the stories is the homage to Malaysia's various ethnicities' tradition and culture. There's something that's heartwarming about seeing yourself represented in print. Most of the stories have an element of quirky but somewhat confusing element of romance. The stories even deal with social issues (racism, for example) and offer good representation (LGBTQ+).
I think the only story that I really, REALLY didn't like was the one with the orang minyak. *shudders*
Overall, it was a good read because its light and humorous.
Spirits Abroad is a collection of short stories about spirits of every kind - orang bunian, toyols, dragons, fairies, etc.
As a Malaysian (or if you're familiar with the Malaysian myths and legends), these stories will leave you in stitches. As someone who isn't Malaysian/familiar with the myths and legends, they might leave you slightly confused.
What I loved about most of the stories is the homage to Malaysia's various ethnicities' tradition and culture. There's something that's heartwarming about seeing yourself represented in print. Most of the stories have an element of quirky but somewhat confusing element of romance. The stories even deal with social issues (racism, for example) and offer good representation (LGBTQ+).
I think the only story that I really, REALLY didn't like was the one with the orang minyak. *shudders*
Overall, it was a good read because its light and humorous.
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
fuck it took me a little while to get into, but it was so worth it, every story and character in this is beautifully crafted, the use of various settings and timelines always deliberate and clever, the use of different language for different characters is never out of place
what astonished me the most was getting to the end, where every short story title is individually listed, along with its original publication date, because every story works so well together and the order is so great that it just amazed me to think the stories weren't written or published one after the other
this is definitely one of my favourite short story collections now and the perfect way to end 2023 :)
what astonished me the most was getting to the end, where every short story title is individually listed, along with its original publication date, because every story works so well together and the order is so great that it just amazed me to think the stories weren't written or published one after the other
this is definitely one of my favourite short story collections now and the perfect way to end 2023 :)
I read this over the course of several months and enjoyed it a lot! (I love all of Zen Cho's work so this was not a surprise.)
While I'm unfamiliar with the Malay folklore these stories draw on, that wasn't an impediment at all, because the focus is always on what makes the characters who they are, rather than whatever traits may be traditionally associated with the type of creature they are. They all feel very real, and often relatable. Now and then England will make an appearance through the lens of someone from a different culture and, having lived in London as a foreigner, the descriptions often made me laugh. My favorite out of all the stories is probably a toss-up between the "House of Aunts" and "Prudence and the Dragon", but they were all lovely.
Definitely recommended.
While I'm unfamiliar with the Malay folklore these stories draw on, that wasn't an impediment at all, because the focus is always on what makes the characters who they are, rather than whatever traits may be traditionally associated with the type of creature they are. They all feel very real, and often relatable. Now and then England will make an appearance through the lens of someone from a different culture and, having lived in London as a foreigner, the descriptions often made me laugh. My favorite out of all the stories is probably a toss-up between the "House of Aunts" and "Prudence and the Dragon", but they were all lovely.
Definitely recommended.