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asianamlitfansWritten by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
I was on the lookout for things ghostly; it might have been because it was October and, well, Halloween was just around the corner! So I chanced upon Paige Clark’s slick yet poignant short story collection, She is Haunted (Allen & Unwin, 2021). I use the descriptor “slick” because some of the stories verge on a level of minimalism, even as they strike at the complicated nature of love and the relationships we hold most dear.
Let’s let the marketing description give us more context: “A mother cuts her daughter's hair because her own starts falling out. A woman leaves her boyfriend because he reminds her of a corpse; another undergoes brain surgery to try to live more comfortably in higher temperatures. A widow physically transforms into her husband so that she does not have to grieve. In She Is Haunted, these renditions of the author search for recognition and connection, and, more than anything else, small moments of empathy. But in what world will she move beyond her haunted past and find compassion for herself? With piercing insights into transnational Asian identity, intergenerational trauma and grief, the dynamics of mother-daughter relationships, the inexplicable oddities of female friendship, and the love of a good dog, Paige Clark has crafted an exquisite, moving and sophisticated debut work of fiction. Full of wit and humour, She Is Haunted announces an entrancing new literary voice as contemporary as it is unique.”
If there is a thematic conceit that unites the collection, it is the intricate nature of our most intimate relationships. Most stories include characters of Chinese descent, which dovetails with the author’s ethnoracial ancestry. There were many standouts. The description of the boyfriend who reminds a woman of a corpse is in the last story “Dead Summer.” The description is a red herring because the crucial aspect is that the protagonist’s mother has died, so the protagonist is undergoing a period of serious mourning. Many of these stories, in fact, deal with this kind of haunting. The story concerning the woman who attempts to transform into her husband is “Times I’ve Wanted to be You.” Again, the issue driving this woman to become her husband is that he has died, so she attempts to find a way to be near to him. The standout story (for me) was “In a Room of Chinese Women.” The premise is essentially that the protagonist, a Chinese American woman, is having to entertain the ex-girlfriend of her now-husband. This woman has just lost her own partner; she also happens to be of Chinese descent, though she is from Australia. When this ex-girlfriend arrives, the protagonist is none too happy. Why is this woman here? What purpose does it serve for her to stay with them in their one bedroom condo? These questions certainly give readers pause about what will ensue. The first night of frivolity keeps us on edge, but it is on a second outing that something shifts. Indeed, the protagonist and this woman go to Chinatown, where they delight in the food and, most important, discover that they have more in common than the protagonist would have first wanted to admit. This shift was striking and perfectly in tone with where Clark was leading us: to give us a sense of the dynamic nature of our connections and how quickly they can change, this time definitely for the better. Another real standout was “What We Deserve,” which follows a woman named Rosa, who is subsisting in an elder care facility. Though she is receiving pretty great attention from the attendants on staff, she feels imprisoned there. Her relationship to her daughter is a bit frayed, and we read with relief when Rosa somehow manages to bust herself out of there, if only for one torrid summer night, to feel the heat on her cheek. The opening story is of course one that really sets the tone for the collection as a woman bargains with God: she tries to make a deal about who can die in her life, so she can spare the death of her lover and her baby.
I really enjoyed reading this collection, more so in the wake of personal losses I’ve suffered over the past couple of years. I come to this work, then, perhaps as the right kind of reader. I also have discovered with much delight that the work is set to come out in the United States with Two Dollar Radio, a wonderful independent publisher that we’ve covered on AALF before (check out the work of Xiaoda Xiao). I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Paige Clark again in the future.
Buy the Book Here
Edited by Corinna Cape
I was on the lookout for things ghostly; it might have been because it was October and, well, Halloween was just around the corner! So I chanced upon Paige Clark’s slick yet poignant short story collection, She is Haunted (Allen & Unwin, 2021). I use the descriptor “slick” because some of the stories verge on a level of minimalism, even as they strike at the complicated nature of love and the relationships we hold most dear.
Let’s let the marketing description give us more context: “A mother cuts her daughter's hair because her own starts falling out. A woman leaves her boyfriend because he reminds her of a corpse; another undergoes brain surgery to try to live more comfortably in higher temperatures. A widow physically transforms into her husband so that she does not have to grieve. In She Is Haunted, these renditions of the author search for recognition and connection, and, more than anything else, small moments of empathy. But in what world will she move beyond her haunted past and find compassion for herself? With piercing insights into transnational Asian identity, intergenerational trauma and grief, the dynamics of mother-daughter relationships, the inexplicable oddities of female friendship, and the love of a good dog, Paige Clark has crafted an exquisite, moving and sophisticated debut work of fiction. Full of wit and humour, She Is Haunted announces an entrancing new literary voice as contemporary as it is unique.”
If there is a thematic conceit that unites the collection, it is the intricate nature of our most intimate relationships. Most stories include characters of Chinese descent, which dovetails with the author’s ethnoracial ancestry. There were many standouts. The description of the boyfriend who reminds a woman of a corpse is in the last story “Dead Summer.” The description is a red herring because the crucial aspect is that the protagonist’s mother has died, so the protagonist is undergoing a period of serious mourning. Many of these stories, in fact, deal with this kind of haunting. The story concerning the woman who attempts to transform into her husband is “Times I’ve Wanted to be You.” Again, the issue driving this woman to become her husband is that he has died, so she attempts to find a way to be near to him. The standout story (for me) was “In a Room of Chinese Women.” The premise is essentially that the protagonist, a Chinese American woman, is having to entertain the ex-girlfriend of her now-husband. This woman has just lost her own partner; she also happens to be of Chinese descent, though she is from Australia. When this ex-girlfriend arrives, the protagonist is none too happy. Why is this woman here? What purpose does it serve for her to stay with them in their one bedroom condo? These questions certainly give readers pause about what will ensue. The first night of frivolity keeps us on edge, but it is on a second outing that something shifts. Indeed, the protagonist and this woman go to Chinatown, where they delight in the food and, most important, discover that they have more in common than the protagonist would have first wanted to admit. This shift was striking and perfectly in tone with where Clark was leading us: to give us a sense of the dynamic nature of our connections and how quickly they can change, this time definitely for the better. Another real standout was “What We Deserve,” which follows a woman named Rosa, who is subsisting in an elder care facility. Though she is receiving pretty great attention from the attendants on staff, she feels imprisoned there. Her relationship to her daughter is a bit frayed, and we read with relief when Rosa somehow manages to bust herself out of there, if only for one torrid summer night, to feel the heat on her cheek. The opening story is of course one that really sets the tone for the collection as a woman bargains with God: she tries to make a deal about who can die in her life, so she can spare the death of her lover and her baby.
I really enjoyed reading this collection, more so in the wake of personal losses I’ve suffered over the past couple of years. I come to this work, then, perhaps as the right kind of reader. I also have discovered with much delight that the work is set to come out in the United States with Two Dollar Radio, a wonderful independent publisher that we’ve covered on AALF before (check out the work of Xiaoda Xiao). I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Paige Clark again in the future.
Buy the Book Here
