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A Review of Joon Oluchi Lee’s Neotenica (Nightboat Books, 2020).When I saw Joon Oluchi Lee had a novel coming out, I was so excited! I read a fascinating piece in Social Text many years ago that Lee had penned that was titled, “The Joy of the Castrated Boy,” which discussed gender fluidity amongst other such issues and concerns. Joon Oluchi Lee’s Neotenica (Nightbook Books, 2020) naturally brings out some similar themes in relation to this eccentric, stylized narrative. I was also enthused to find out that Lee has two other fictions that have been published, 94 (Publication Studio, 2015) and Lace Sick Bag (Publication Studio, 2013). I’ll have to find a way to get them! Let’s let the official description give us some background on the novel I am reviewing: “Neotenica is a novel of encounters: casual sex, arranged-marriage dates, cops, rowdy teenagers, lawyers, a Sapphic flirtation, a rival, a child, and two important dogs. At the center of it are Young Ae, a Korean-born ballet dancer turned PhD student, and her husband, a Korean-American male who inhabits an interior femininity, neither transgender nor homosexual, but a strong, visceral femininity nonetheless. This novel is an adrenaline-filled ride sliding across the surface of desire and chance through the quotidian turned playful.” The first thing I’d like to state right off the bat is that this novel immediately makes me wonder about tone. I found myself pondering if there was a word to encapsulate the tone of the novel, which seems to move from satirical perspectives to erotic relationalities within quick bursts of narrative movement. The novel is also intriguingly constructed, as we get a sense of Young Ae and her husband not only through their own perspectives but also characters who interact with them. Lee deftly switches from first and third person narrators, while maintaining that dynamic tone I’ve been mentioning before. The most compelling element of the novel and its biggest structural binding point is the marriage between Young Ae and her husband. They find a level of mutual recognition in each other, while they seek out extramarital sexual liaisons. Lee takes time delving into the specifics of these complicated dynamics, embodying them with texture and tonal precision. There’s also something slightly slick about both characters, as they try to navigate their lives with a level of awkwardness. Upon thinking about this issue more, it fits perfectly within the title, as neoteny refers to a form of juvenilization. While there are biological reasons why someone might remain in a “juvenile” stage, Lee is obviously working more metaphorically. Indeed, Young Ae, for instance, is working on a PhD in English, but there is very little sense of why she feels it necessarily important to pursue this degree. Young Ae’s husband also seems to flit about his life with little sense of purpose. Though this kind of state of aimlessness can be disorienting to read, Lee’s meticulous tonality, the ways in which we are constantly left slightly askew by the perspective, always keeps us on very solid readerly ground. A review from Publishers Weekly notes “What’s left feels as true as it is absurd.” I cannot agree more. A totally original narrative that could perhaps only be published by a dynamic, independent press. It would be an excellent text to pair alongside something like Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee or Pamela Lu’s Ambient Parking Lot. I can only imagine the discussions that would arise. For more on Nightboat’s groovy offerings, go here. I’ll be certain to review more titles over the coming year.
The press maintains a robust backlist that includes a number of Asian American authors, including but not limited to Brandon Som, Vi Khi Nao, Bhanu Kapil, and Myung Mi Kim.
Buy the Book Here:
