Familiar Things (2018) by Hwang Sok-yong

Book Review

Familiar Things (2018)

by Hwang Sok-yong

   One way I keep myself stocked with books to read is by checking other books put out by the same publisher whenever I read an Ebook or Audiobook via the Libby app.  Chances are with the smaller publishing houses that if I like one title I will find other interesting titles available on the app.  Such was the case with Familiar Things, the 2018 book about South Korean trash pickers that very much reminded my of Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri, the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature winner, that was about a homeless man living outside a subway station in Tokyo.  Both books deal with the human detrius of the late 20th century rush towards capitalism experienced in both societies.   Both books weave magical elements into their down-and-dirty depictions of what it is like to be homeless in Japan or to earn a living scavenging in the dumps outside Seoul. 

   I did enjoy Familiar Things, even if there were some moments, mostly centered around meal preparation and eating in the dump, that made me want to gag.   I wouldn't consider South Korea as a place where people live in a trash dump, to me that is more associated with real third world/undeveloped locations in countries like the Philippines, Bangladesh or Latin America.  I suppose like the moments that made me gag, the whole point is to convince you of the reality of this existence, and in that sense, Familiar Things is a total success

North of Dawn (2018) by Nuruddin Farah

Somali diaspora Nuruddin Farah

Book Review

North of Dawn (2018)

by Nuruddin Farah

   I usually think about Somali author Nuruddin Farah once a year right before the Nobel Prize in Literature is handed out, Farah being oft-cited year after year as a potential winner of the prize.  He came pretty close this year, losing out to Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Tanzanian-British writer who has a similar profile in terms of writing from a position of self-imposed exile in the West.  Gurnah, a professor in the UK, Farah presently working as a professor in the Minnesota. 

   Anyway, I loved North of Dawn, about the life of a Somali diplomat living in Norway after the Somalian collapse, and his wife, and the wife and children of their deceased son, a jihadi who blew himself up on behalf of Al Shabab.   I was genuinely excited to find that an Audiobook had been commissioned by the publisher- Farah's only available Audiobook despite decades of novels. 

  

   The book is about the diplomat's wife honoring a promise to her dead son, that she would look after his wife, a refugee camp party girl turned observant Muslim with two teenage stepchildren.  Those expecting a plot that revolves around some kind of race based injustice have come to the wrong place, the Norwegians as portrayed by Farah are scrupulously fair and I wouldn't characterize any part of the plot as concerning injustice suffered by immigrants at the hands of their host.   True, one of the minor children is murdered in the book version the Anders Breivik youth camp massacre in 2011, but she is the only Somali victim among the 75 people killed that day.

   I would gladly read another Farah book, and it is too bad he doesn't have more Audiobooks available.

    

Hell of a Book (2021) by Jason Mott

American author Jason Mott

Book Review

Hell of a Book (2021)

by Jason Mott

   This National Book Award finalist nomination  win for Hell of a Book was a huge break through for American author Jason Mott, who has previously authored more or less conventional works that traverse genre fiction, the bestseller list, and literary fiction.   Mott almost uncannily combines a book tour milieu reminiscent of recent Pulitzer winner Less by Andrew Greer with the sharp edged satire of Booker winner Paul Beatty to produce Hell of a Book, the 2021 National Book Award winner for fiction.   Mott's protagonist is a best-selling author on a book tour of America's great and not-so-great cities.  Originally, from North Carolina, he is haunted by the ghost (or is he?) of a murdered African American child from his home town.   The great achievement is Mott's troubled protagonist who manages to be deeply feckless in the midst of a very meaningful plot, like something you would expect from Martin Amis.  Mott's narrator protagonist has deep bouts of almost disassociative imagination, something he describes almost as an occupational hazard of a writer.   It gives the most prosaic moments unexpected panache, and helps the plot leap free of the mundane realities of a 21st century book tour by a succesful author of "serious" literary fiction. 

    And it is again worth pointing out that Mott has several works in different genres and areas of literary fiction that have sold well, so kudos for him for making the leap to major prize winner mid career.

Crying in the H Mart (2021) by Michelle Zauner

Musician and Author Michelle Zauner

Book Review

Crying in the H Mart (2021) 

by Michelle Zauner

  Does Michelle Zauner read all her online press? It is very much not beyond the realm of plausibility that I might come face to face with Zauner back stage at a music festival, so this review certainly falls into the category of, "don't say anything you wouldn't say to the subjects face the first time you meet." or at least to assume that whatever you say will be accessible to that subject.  Zauner, of course, is the performer beind Japanese Breakfast- I'm still unclear if there is anything to the band aspect besides people Zauner has picked up.   I don't listen to Japanese Breakfast, but I was intrigued both by the cross-cultural aspect, Zauner is Korean-American, with a Korean mom and white American Dad, and by the main story being about Zauner's mom dying of cancer while she was still struggling to put together her career in the arts.  That mirrored the story of Kristin from the Dum Dum Girls- she talked about her mom in interviews but didn't write a book about it.   I'm always intrigued by young memoirists- another one I know is Moshe Kasher- who is the younger brother of a long time friend.  It just seems crazy to put such personal information about yourself out there.   I'm sure I could never do that. 

    Anywho- if Michelle is actually reading this- wow- I could never! Just, the bravery of it all. And I think it is very much a positive that Zauner doesn't try to portray herself as some kind of virtuous angel- it's a wards and all situation, and as someone who grew up with artsy people on the west coast who ended up going to Bryn Mawr (Zauner is from not-Portland Oregon, I grew up in the Bay Area a decade before her), I feel her.  I wish I could have read this book when I was in high school, since I knew plenty of Asian and half-Asian students and had little insight on their perspective. 

   I listened to the Audiobook edition, narrated by the Author, which I highly recommend, since the tone of the writing suits the Audiobook format, and the author herself reads it to you.

Stranger to the Moon (2021) by Evelio Rosero

Book Review

Stranger to the Moon (2021)

by Evelio Rosero

    Stranger to the Moon is another bizarre Spanish language translation that has made it to American bookstores. Evelio Rosero is a well known and prolific (18 novels published in his native Spanish) Colombian author- he also writes poetry and children's books.  Stranger to the Moon is a disturbing allegory that recalls (in the words of the publisher New Directions, "Both Kafka and De Sade." I would add Italo Calvino to that list.   The world of Stranger to the Moon is contained inside one house where "the naked" live in a state of abject degradation, naked, with no access to the outside world- or with such access so limited that to go outside is to court death, they are occasionally visited by "the clothed" who abuse them sexually and otherwise serve as their captors and tormentors.   Stranger to the Moon is quite clearly an allegory, though what, exactly, is the subject or topic of that allegory seems to be up for grabs.  

  At 96 pages, Stranger to the Moon won't keep you waiting around for an ending, basically you get the set up, one thing happens, and the book is over.  It makes sense for a book that is set entirely inside a single "house" but it reads more like a short story or novella than a novel.

Rabbit Island (2021) by Elvira Navarro

Book Review

Rabbit Island (2021)

by Elvira Navarro

    This collection of short stories by Spanish author Elvira Navarro was longlisted for the National Book Award prize for translated fiction.  Like many works of Spanish language short fiction that make it on the longlist of English language prizes, there is a heavy element of the bizarre and surreal.  The title story, about a weirdo who tries to control the bird population on an island in the middle of a river near Madrid by releasing 20 rabbits, takes a macabre and disturbing twist.  In another story an animal paw grows out of the ear of the narrator.   Strange, disturbing, that is the vibe.

The Cabinet (2021) by Un Su Kim

Book Review

The Cabinet (2021)

by Un Su Kim

   I really enjoyed The Plotters, which was the first book by Korean novelist Un Su Kim to be translated into English.  The Plotters was a crisp, stylish work of crime-fiction, a book obviously inspired by the conventions of the noir genre but rendered eerie by the Korean locations and the writing style of Un Su Kim.   The Cabinet is not a work of crime fiction, though the third act contains some bloody surprises which are sure to delight those familiar with his previously translated book.  Mr. Kong, the narrator and protagonist, is a listless office worker who finds a sideline minding the client files of Cabinet 13, a bunch of genetic mutations who require constant attention from Kong's mentor.   When his mentor dies, Kong becomes the subject of attention for different shadowy forces who seek to profit from the secrets of Cabinet 13. 

   Part social satire, part...something else, The Cabinet is just as rewarding as The Plotters, and it won the Korean Pultizer- the Munhakdongne award as well.  If you start The Plotters, make sure you stick around for the third act, you will not be dissapointed.

Immobility (2013) by Brian Evenson

Book Review

Immobility (2013)

by Brian Evenson

   I saw this book on a list of post-apocalyptic lit on a book blog, though I can't precisely remember which one.   I do like a good book blog list, even if it seems to me like most book blogs are trying to way too hard.  They are all better than mine, of course.  I'd never heard of author Brian Evenson before, which now seems borderline strange since he occupies that narrow space between genre and literature that interests me.  Immobility is also Evenson's only  library available Audiobook.

   Evenson paints a super bleak scenario for what comes after the fall of man.  It is a barren, lifeless landscape poisonous to humans.  The narrator is something other than human, no one is really sure what, except that he doesn't die when exposed to the toxic atmosphere or earth, and he is basically immortal.  Nothing really gets explained beyond that level, and the post-collapse society that Evenson draws in this novel is more sophisticated by an order of magnitude that what you typically see in work in this creative space.