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A review by hsienhsien27
Drifting House by Krys Lee
5.0
When it comes to books written by East Asians, the ones that tend to get the most recognition are Japanese. At least from what I've seen. I've never heard of Krys Lee, I literally found this on Bookoutlet for like four dollars and was attracted to the minimalist typography. (yes, I'm really that dorky.) It wasn't anything too surreal, no magical realism, no post-apocalypse. This was more like a slice-of-life\ collection, I thought it would also be similar to [b:Your Republic Is Calling You|8131789|Your Republic Is Calling You|Young-Ha Kim|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442704281s/8131789.jpg|12927766] by Young-Ha Kim. Which is kind of close in bleakness, with Murakami isolation and prose, and a sort of post-apocalyptic world that is silent and only occurs with the lack of human contact.
This was the best short story collection I have ever read in 2015 other than [b:From Here|22505230|From Here|Jen Michalski|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403010022s/22505230.jpg|41951969] by Jen Michalski. They both contain oddity, taboo, and societal otherness and isolation. Ranging in topics from Korean diaspora to death in the family to Korean fathers to Post WWII and the Korean War, there's a lot of different perspectives and lives to peek into. One of my favorite stories was "At the Edge of the World" a story about a son who's just discovering himself and navigating his path between Korean and American and a father who can't seem to get his tragic past out of his head. What really touched me the most about this story was the relationship between the father and son, the distance and the barrier, culturally, maybe linguistically, it was just super relatable to me.
Another favorite of mine is the last story in the collection called "Beautiful Women," about a fatherless daughter and her relationship with her mother. Depicted in this story is the stigmatization of a woman who's African American military husband died in the war and is single. Not only is she ostracized for her interracial relationships but is also treated as a second class citizen due to just being a woman. The story explores the world of single women and the daughters born into that world, where they are looked down upon for not fitting tradition. The daughter imagines throughout the story, her missing father figures, what they are like and the meaning of hers and their existence. It's another touching story on familial relationships and the missing fragments of our lives.
There is a lot of speculation in this collection, a lot of brow raising subjects like taboo relationships and the supernatural. There aren't any sci-fi or unicorns, but fantasy does tend to slip in throughout the collection, as the dysfunction and isolation in a character's life seems to break the barrier of logic, reason, and stability.
The writing style is all in third person view and Krys Lee manages to be one of the few writers who can pull it off wonderfully, without characters becoming too cardboard. They actually have physical and emotional movement, they are not merely a name mentioned throughout the story. Her prose is much like free verse poetry, seasoned with simile that just bring up the right imagery. It just works somehow.
Overall, Drifting House is pretty solid. Best short story collection I've read since the summer.
This was the best short story collection I have ever read in 2015 other than [b:From Here|22505230|From Here|Jen Michalski|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403010022s/22505230.jpg|41951969] by Jen Michalski. They both contain oddity, taboo, and societal otherness and isolation. Ranging in topics from Korean diaspora to death in the family to Korean fathers to Post WWII and the Korean War, there's a lot of different perspectives and lives to peek into. One of my favorite stories was "At the Edge of the World" a story about a son who's just discovering himself and navigating his path between Korean and American and a father who can't seem to get his tragic past out of his head. What really touched me the most about this story was the relationship between the father and son, the distance and the barrier, culturally, maybe linguistically, it was just super relatable to me.
Another favorite of mine is the last story in the collection called "Beautiful Women," about a fatherless daughter and her relationship with her mother. Depicted in this story is the stigmatization of a woman who's African American military husband died in the war and is single. Not only is she ostracized for her interracial relationships but is also treated as a second class citizen due to just being a woman. The story explores the world of single women and the daughters born into that world, where they are looked down upon for not fitting tradition. The daughter imagines throughout the story, her missing father figures, what they are like and the meaning of hers and their existence. It's another touching story on familial relationships and the missing fragments of our lives.
There is a lot of speculation in this collection, a lot of brow raising subjects like taboo relationships and the supernatural. There aren't any sci-fi or unicorns, but fantasy does tend to slip in throughout the collection, as the dysfunction and isolation in a character's life seems to break the barrier of logic, reason, and stability.
The writing style is all in third person view and Krys Lee manages to be one of the few writers who can pull it off wonderfully, without characters becoming too cardboard. They actually have physical and emotional movement, they are not merely a name mentioned throughout the story. Her prose is much like free verse poetry, seasoned with simile that just bring up the right imagery. It just works somehow.
Overall, Drifting House is pretty solid. Best short story collection I've read since the summer.