To transition from “welp the kids get a longer spring break but we’re still here” to “jk the governor just declared a national emergency so go work from home,” I’ve been reading a couple anthologies. Short stuff seems to match the panic attention span.
Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused: Fiction from Today’s China, edited by Howard Goldblatt (used paperback): I bought this book from Monkeywrench Books in Austin when we visited for a friend’s wedding. It’s part of our quest to visit all the public libraries and anarchist bookstores we can, plus that was a really fun trip, so I’d been saving reading this for a special occasion. That’s an excellent way for me to never actually read a thing, though, so I dug it out of my TBR pile almost at random, and I’m very glad I did.
The intro was just as interesting as the selections because it talks about writing fiction during the Cultural Revolution and how once that repression of artistry was over, fiction explode in all directions at once. And these stories are chosen to represent a wide swath of that: you’ve got your twisted folktales, your Communist satire, your social realism, your combinations of all with little flourishes of the surreal.
There’s not a bad story in this collection. The ones I personally liked least were the more fable-type, but that’s just because those aren’t my favorite fiction structure in general (I find overfamiliar tropes boring). I still enjoyed these more than Western-based ones, though, because I’m not familiar with Chinese literature traditions so the storytelling rhythms were familiar but the details were not.
My favorite stories were the more modern ones like “First Person,” when a worker goes to his new housing assignment, passes a woman under a tree and a dude walking near a cemetery next door, and becomes convinced they let their child loose in the woods; and “Footsteps on the Roof” where a young woman who likes to pretend she’s got an exotic disease appears to a lonely young man living across from a haunted apartment.
There are also a couple good ones using dentistry (“Sunshine Between the Lips” and “A String of Choices”) to riff on sexuality and bureaucratic absurdness, which, apparently getting your teeth fixed was a nightmare under Mao.
I wish there was some sort of Babel fish-type thing for reading in original languages because I always feel like I’m missing something when I read in translation, but these remain lyrical and subtle and funny and absurd and just as poignant in what they don’t say as in what they do.
Readers’ Advisory: For you if you like the rhythms of traditional Eastern storytelling, or if you’re curious about everyday life during the Cultural Revolution, or if you’re stuck in a Western reading rut.
Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman (library paperback): I saw this come through at work and its cover mentioned a couple of my favorite authors, so I snagged it until at least May because we just pushed back all items’ due dates. (Y’all are WELCOME.)
I like the premise a little more than the actual material. Freeman didn’t just collect essays, but also short stories and poems as well. I thought I’d be annoyed that the fiction isn’t distinguished from the non-, but it’s actually a great way to get immersed in all the viewpoints represented here.
And there are a number of ways these writers talk about and approach inequality, from within the adjunct-paved trenches themselves to fighting their way out of hardscrabble childhoods to confronting their guilt over having more than other people but not enough to give it all away.
The best ones are from those names who may be recognizable but have not really made enough money to go over to the reflective side. Writing is fucking hard work for criminally awful pay, and I’d rather read about how authors deal with the day to day of that because it’s more interesting than the magic wand of a bestseller propelling someone to relative financial freedom, at least for awhile. Karen Russell has a selection in here, about living in Portland among a homeless epidemic, and her compassion is true and helpless and a tiny catalyst of change, but also check out her recent essay on the financial details of being a fiction writer and a mom. To me, that’s much more interesting and telling because it’s literally her everyday life and the mechanics of how it works.
On that note, the most effective pieces here are from those who live in the midst of inequality, or grew up in them and contrast the way they’re treated now that they’ve made it. Most of these writers are people of color, because this country still thinks it’s normal to treat “other” folks badly for some fucked-up reason like we’re not well into the goddamn 21st century. Danez Smith, Edwidge Danticat, Julia Alvarez, Nami Mun were my favorite - click their names to check out the rest of their stuff because they are great.
And you know what, I really enjoyed Roxane Gay’s contribution, a fiction story called “How,” and I’ve heard online that she’s a terrible person but she’s gone through hell and not that that’s an excuse but her writing is lovely and dammit, all my heroes are turning out to be assholes, so it was nice to read a collection this civic-minded, even if some of the selections fell a bit on the tone-deaf side of How to Help.
Readers’ Advisory: Chances are you’ll enjoy this if you already agree/know most of the facts presented in the more fact-based essays. Definitely pick it up if you’re looking to expand your list of good authors who write about/talk about these topics.
So wonderful. Lots to say but it’s late. Nice to meet you ish! I love Fowler but only read one of her’sSarah Canary. Feel similar to how you describe her empathic stuff w $ parenting. Etc.
Wait! How is Roxane Gay known as mean?! Crazy rumor. I follow her twitter as a balm and a guide I’m confident (although who knows on internet what’s real) that those she’s mean rumors are middle school angry white men in origin. She’s HILARIOUS my husband said in person like she could be president and make us laugh and whip us into shape all at once. AND watch her (no time) hammer museum interview. She’s fat black queer and unapologetic = USA don culture sees as another angry bitch. Glance at her twitter or insta. See what you think.
She’s admitted she’s fried right now but it’s clear she’s full throttle so who could write creatively and keep jcjfjfjvkb bed for me. XO