A review by leifalreadyexists
Land of Big Numbers: Stories by Te-Ping Chen

5.0

Surprise, I loved this book. Chen's grounds are the transitions between cultures and spaces: families split between America and China, partners living the friction of their different upbringings, the young jumping headlong into economic traps which their parents, well... the stories are visceral and fully imagined, and felt like Chen was both tapping the zeitgeist of political protests and stock market crashes while still focusing on believable characters working through difficult or devastating choices and activities. I'm not always a short story fan, but these knocked my socks off and I wouldn't be surprised if I was still thinking about them in a year's time. Recommended.