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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
sharp and digs into the flesh. ling ma is sooo good at the weird and inexplicable. big, big fan! hoping I like severance as much!!
medium-paced
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
I was thrown by the common ground between the first two stories, because I believed, going into it, that all of these stories were completely unrelated, but...that's irrelevant!
I love Ling Ma's inventiveness and humor and wasn't surprised to enjoy these.
I think Office Hours was probably my favorite, but I also thought highly of G and Tomorrow.
I love Ling Ma's inventiveness and humor and wasn't surprised to enjoy these.
I think Office Hours was probably my favorite, but I also thought highly of G and Tomorrow.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
simply wonderful, so self aware and spoke to me in many ways, i love Ling Ma’s mind she really just gets it! bc like woah she's so right when she says "it is in the most surreal situations that a person feels the most present, the closest to reality" and "I think less about the beginning than about the end, which is where all my feelings have now pooled, having rolled downward toward the inevitable outcome" and "an ideology defined only by what it opposes is doomed to be defined by that exact thing" etc etc each short story just kept getting better than the last, i can’t wait to read a full length novel of hers
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
i loved everything about this collection. i could see myself sitting with my friends around a campfire and reading this entire book to them in one sitting. everyone in my life who thinks they can write should read this book and then have an existential crisis because they can simply never write *this.*
i have mixed feelings about this one.... but ultimately i think i liked it? i think? bliss montage is a dizzying collection of snapshot-like short stories that explore fantasy in modernity, loneliness, & the burdens of immigrant asian american women. it's definitely very thematic. it's experimental. the narration is easy to follow, the ambiances created are impeccable, and ling ma is a master at building tension. but the ENDINGS frustrated me so!!! much!!!! none of these stories had ANY resolution. & ok, maybe this wouldn't bother other readers, and i know it's a stylistic choice but it really irked me. perhaps the unresolved feelings of tension and suspense add on to the surrealist magical realism that ling ma unravels throughout her short stories, or whatever--but for me it just made me wanna put the book down after another unsatisfying conclusion.
but, with this said--there's something addictive about bliss montage. maybe it's the effortless simplicity with heavier undertones. maybe the curiosity about how ling ma will twist the conventional. that's one of the strengths in this collection: the unpredictability. despite the bland, repetitive narrative voice (wow! every narrator is an asian american woman who immigrated at age 6 and is recently broken up w/ her white boyfriend or in a loveless marriage!), i was still drawn in by ma's worldbuilding. i mean, come on: a house with 100 ex-boyfriends, a drug that makes you invisible, a healing ritual that buries you alive, a secret passageway into a hidden world. ma somehow weaves these outlandish concepts with everyday modern experiences--& i loved that.
anyway now i'll talk about each story individually cuz why not (spoilers ahead probably!)
"los angeles" - i remember thinking "WOW this is incredible" until i got to the ending. then i was wholly confused and trying to look for hidden symbolism. but no, that's just how ling ma writes i guess lol. but overall it was pretty interesting.
"oranges" - nah i was sick of adam the abuser at this point not gonna lie. also was sick of the whole fixation on a female asian american narrator being soooo fixated on a white man--and this was only story #2 LOL. prolly my least favorite out of all of them
"g" - ok this one was probably my favorite tho!!! i just love the complexity of bonnie and bea's relationship. and there was less of a focus on the white bf thank god. i also love how this one explored asian american immigrant identities. & combined with sneaky magical realism was amazing. i was pretty mind boggled after this no cap
"yeti lovemaking" - yeah idk man this felt kinda over the top. also i was so confused after finishing it. i feel like there was too much of an emphasis on the yeti even tho the narrator is addressing the entire narrative to (guess who!) her white ex-bf. so i guess it's about the irrationality of post-break up decisions? but dude i was too fixated on the literal fucking YETI who she was fucking???? like???? that is so bizarre???? a bit too surreal for me but the ending was strangely comforting and not as frustrating as the other ones
"returning" - my 2nd fav one i think. but only because of the white bf's book. the summary of "homecoming" literally.. . .. made me go feral.... ohmdgogod.... just the thought of coming home only to find that nothing has changed is SO HEARTBREAKING i love it. split pov was pretty cool and the characters were interesting i think. also the whole worldbuilding on garboza drew me in a lot! definitely distinct from that same bland narrative voice. but yes i liked it & i feel like the open-ended classic ling ma unresolved ending actually worked for this one
"office hours" - yeah this one felt more like taking drugs than the story about actual drugs felt. very trippy and examined academia and the invisibility of women in media... i quite enjoyed it! it felt more snapshot-y than the other stories. more of a story that's about middles rather than beginnings or ends. it was nice, very very surreal
"peking duck" - & here we have the super cultural chinese american story. i thought it was cool and definitely very multi-faceted. the exploration of authenticity and immigrant identity was very intriguing. the beginning and the end especially made my heart ache,,
"tomorrow" - this one was pretty cool too except i was soooo tired of the white bf at this point like stfu ben literally fuck off. but anyway. another exploration of what it is to be an asian american immigrant. i loved the depiction of that disparity between "home" and the country you now live in.... wished the world could've been more developed tho, it was cool :(
OK that's it! in conclusion, you will like this if you don't mind all the stories kinda being the same, in terms of narrative voice. also if u don't mind super surreal stuff or abrupt endings. i think ling ma's novel writing will be more appealing to me tho, & i am gonna read severance next >:)
3.5/5
but, with this said--there's something addictive about bliss montage. maybe it's the effortless simplicity with heavier undertones. maybe the curiosity about how ling ma will twist the conventional. that's one of the strengths in this collection: the unpredictability. despite the bland, repetitive narrative voice (wow! every narrator is an asian american woman who immigrated at age 6 and is recently broken up w/ her white boyfriend or in a loveless marriage!), i was still drawn in by ma's worldbuilding. i mean, come on: a house with 100 ex-boyfriends, a drug that makes you invisible, a healing ritual that buries you alive, a secret passageway into a hidden world. ma somehow weaves these outlandish concepts with everyday modern experiences--& i loved that.
anyway now i'll talk about each story individually cuz why not (spoilers ahead probably!)
"los angeles" - i remember thinking "WOW this is incredible" until i got to the ending. then i was wholly confused and trying to look for hidden symbolism. but no, that's just how ling ma writes i guess lol. but overall it was pretty interesting.
"oranges" - nah i was sick of adam the abuser at this point not gonna lie. also was sick of the whole fixation on a female asian american narrator being soooo fixated on a white man--and this was only story #2 LOL. prolly my least favorite out of all of them
"g" - ok this one was probably my favorite tho!!! i just love the complexity of bonnie and bea's relationship. and there was less of a focus on the white bf thank god. i also love how this one explored asian american immigrant identities. & combined with sneaky magical realism was amazing. i was pretty mind boggled after this no cap
"yeti lovemaking" - yeah idk man this felt kinda over the top. also i was so confused after finishing it. i feel like there was too much of an emphasis on the yeti even tho the narrator is addressing the entire narrative to (guess who!) her white ex-bf. so i guess it's about the irrationality of post-break up decisions? but dude i was too fixated on the literal fucking YETI who she was fucking???? like???? that is so bizarre???? a bit too surreal for me but the ending was strangely comforting and not as frustrating as the other ones
"returning" - my 2nd fav one i think. but only because of the white bf's book. the summary of "homecoming" literally.. . .. made me go feral.... ohmdgogod.... just the thought of coming home only to find that nothing has changed is SO HEARTBREAKING i love it. split pov was pretty cool and the characters were interesting i think. also the whole worldbuilding on garboza drew me in a lot! definitely distinct from that same bland narrative voice. but yes i liked it & i feel like the open-ended classic ling ma unresolved ending actually worked for this one
"office hours" - yeah this one felt more like taking drugs than the story about actual drugs felt. very trippy and examined academia and the invisibility of women in media... i quite enjoyed it! it felt more snapshot-y than the other stories. more of a story that's about middles rather than beginnings or ends. it was nice, very very surreal
"peking duck" - & here we have the super cultural chinese american story. i thought it was cool and definitely very multi-faceted. the exploration of authenticity and immigrant identity was very intriguing. the beginning and the end especially made my heart ache,,
"tomorrow" - this one was pretty cool too except i was soooo tired of the white bf at this point like stfu ben literally fuck off. but anyway. another exploration of what it is to be an asian american immigrant. i loved the depiction of that disparity between "home" and the country you now live in.... wished the world could've been more developed tho, it was cool :(
OK that's it! in conclusion, you will like this if you don't mind all the stories kinda being the same, in terms of narrative voice. also if u don't mind super surreal stuff or abrupt endings. i think ling ma's novel writing will be more appealing to me tho, & i am gonna read severance next >:)
3.5/5
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
absurdly beautiful. ling ma discovers pieces of a story for the reader and trusts that we will put them together in a meaningful way.