A Review of Jadie Jang’s Monkey Around (Solaris, 2021).
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ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
So, for those of you who didn’t realize: Jadie Jang is a pen name for the wonderful Claire Light. Way back in the day, I was such a huge fan of Claire’s work that I wrote on one of her short stories “Abducted by Aliens!” in my first book, Racial Asymmetries. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a standalone publication by Claire, so when Monkey Around (Solaris, 2021) appeared, I was massively stoked. The challenge for me, as I’ve taken a new job and adjusted to life on a new coast with an entirely different climate, is carving enough time to read. I’ve definitely slowed down, but I finally managed to complete this novel, which was read really over a period of a couple of months (over various subway and bus rides). Let’s let the official marketing description do some work for us: “San Francisco has a Monkey King — and she's freaking out. Barista, activist, and were-monkey Maya McQueen was well on her way to figuring herself out. Well, part of the way. 25% of the way. If you squint. But now the Bay Area is being shaken up. Occupy Wall Street has come home to roost; and on the supernatural side there’s disappearances, shapeshifter murders, and the city’s spirit trying to find its guardian. Maya doesn’t have a lot of time before chaos turns up at her door, and she needs to solve all of her problems. Well, most of them. The urgent ones, anyhow. But who says the solutions have to be neat? Because Monkey is always out for mischief.”
You really can’t beat a mystery. Boiled into the plot is the “whodunnit” element that drives you forward, but what Jang, aka Light, has in the bag is the fact that she knows just how to create a fully fleshed out, unforgettable first person narrator. Maya is hilarious and quite frank in the way that she relates to everyone else. Whether or not she senses that someone else is trouble, is attractive, must be considered with care or not are all a part of the lush interiority that Jang provides us. The other element that I found striking is the effective use of the chapter structure. Each chapter is like an episode of a procedural, where we are following along as the mystery deepens and is eventually resolved. Once I understood the structure, I realized that this type of novel was one I could relish over a longer period of time because I knew that each chapter was building its own mini-plot. While reading the novel, I got the sense that there were going to be many sequels. For instance, there’s a huge unresolved element that the marketing description details related to the “city’s spirit,” which reminds us of the contemporary work of N.K. Jemisin in her own city series. In the case of Monkey Around, the city’s spirit leads Jang to explore discourses related to indigenous identity as well as indigenous land dispossession. So, beyond the crackling plot and Maya’s spritely narration, we do get a very intriguing and politically engaged context concerning interracial and interethnic alliances. The final thing I wanted to comment upon was the fun world building aspects that make this work a speculative fiction. Of course, Asian Americanists will well be familiar with the monkey king and its various configurations that have emerged in literature (Tripmaster Monkey, American Born Chinese, etc.), but Jang’s version gives us the opportunity to explore a whole host of shapeshifting and paranormal figures from various cultures. This aspect of the novel really makes the speculative dimensions robust, especially as you see the variations in the power of these characters. Of course, given the fact that the entity that seems to be attacking these shapeshifters is intent typically on sucking out their souls and killing them, many of these “supernats,” as they are called, are not long for the fictional world. Ultimately, the plot concludes in a satisfying way, with the exception of a couple of elements that seem to be open for future installments. As of this time though, a little birdie told me that sales are not great, so the likelihood that we see these sequels is still a question. Whatever the case, I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to buy a copy and read this work, so that we can put Jang to work to finish out the series!
Buy the Book Here
comments
ccape
Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape
So, for those of you who didn’t realize: Jadie Jang is a pen name for the wonderful Claire Light. Way back in the day, I was such a huge fan of Claire’s work that I wrote on one of her short stories “Abducted by Aliens!” in my first book, Racial Asymmetries. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a standalone publication by Claire, so when Monkey Around (Solaris, 2021) appeared, I was massively stoked. The challenge for me, as I’ve taken a new job and adjusted to life on a new coast with an entirely different climate, is carving enough time to read. I’ve definitely slowed down, but I finally managed to complete this novel, which was read really over a period of a couple of months (over various subway and bus rides). Let’s let the official marketing description do some work for us: “San Francisco has a Monkey King — and she's freaking out. Barista, activist, and were-monkey Maya McQueen was well on her way to figuring herself out. Well, part of the way. 25% of the way. If you squint. But now the Bay Area is being shaken up. Occupy Wall Street has come home to roost; and on the supernatural side there’s disappearances, shapeshifter murders, and the city’s spirit trying to find its guardian. Maya doesn’t have a lot of time before chaos turns up at her door, and she needs to solve all of her problems. Well, most of them. The urgent ones, anyhow. But who says the solutions have to be neat? Because Monkey is always out for mischief.”
You really can’t beat a mystery. Boiled into the plot is the “whodunnit” element that drives you forward, but what Jang, aka Light, has in the bag is the fact that she knows just how to create a fully fleshed out, unforgettable first person narrator. Maya is hilarious and quite frank in the way that she relates to everyone else. Whether or not she senses that someone else is trouble, is attractive, must be considered with care or not are all a part of the lush interiority that Jang provides us. The other element that I found striking is the effective use of the chapter structure. Each chapter is like an episode of a procedural, where we are following along as the mystery deepens and is eventually resolved. Once I understood the structure, I realized that this type of novel was one I could relish over a longer period of time because I knew that each chapter was building its own mini-plot. While reading the novel, I got the sense that there were going to be many sequels. For instance, there’s a huge unresolved element that the marketing description details related to the “city’s spirit,” which reminds us of the contemporary work of N.K. Jemisin in her own city series. In the case of Monkey Around, the city’s spirit leads Jang to explore discourses related to indigenous identity as well as indigenous land dispossession. So, beyond the crackling plot and Maya’s spritely narration, we do get a very intriguing and politically engaged context concerning interracial and interethnic alliances. The final thing I wanted to comment upon was the fun world building aspects that make this work a speculative fiction. Of course, Asian Americanists will well be familiar with the monkey king and its various configurations that have emerged in literature (Tripmaster Monkey, American Born Chinese, etc.), but Jang’s version gives us the opportunity to explore a whole host of shapeshifting and paranormal figures from various cultures. This aspect of the novel really makes the speculative dimensions robust, especially as you see the variations in the power of these characters. Of course, given the fact that the entity that seems to be attacking these shapeshifters is intent typically on sucking out their souls and killing them, many of these “supernats,” as they are called, are not long for the fictional world. Ultimately, the plot concludes in a satisfying way, with the exception of a couple of elements that seem to be open for future installments. As of this time though, a little birdie told me that sales are not great, so the likelihood that we see these sequels is still a question. Whatever the case, I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to buy a copy and read this work, so that we can put Jang to work to finish out the series!
Buy the Book Here
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