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Home Remedies
In twelve stunning stories of love, family, and identity, Xuan Juliana Wang’s debut collection captures the unheard voices of an emerging generation. Young, reckless, and catapulted toward uncertain futures, here is the new face of Chinese youth on a quest for every kind of freedom.
From a crowded apartment on Mott Street, where an immigrant family raises its first real Americans, to a pair of divers at the Beijing Olympics poised at the edge of success and self-discovery, Wang’s unforgettable characters – with their unusual careers, unconventional sex lives and fantastical technologies – share the bold hope that, no matter where they’ve come from, their lives too can be extraordinary.
From a crowded apartment on Mott Street, where an immigrant family raises its first real Americans, to a pair of divers at the Beijing Olympics poised at the edge of success and self-discovery, Wang’s unforgettable characters – with their unusual careers, unconventional sex lives and fantastical technologies – share the bold hope that, no matter where they’ve come from, their lives too can be extraordinary.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
May 31, 2019
A gorgeous collection of short stories that centers the Chinese millennial experience and spans topics like immigration, family, romance, and how where we come from affects how we relate to others. This is going to be a lop-sided review because I have to first focus on my favorite story from this collection, “Vaulting the Sea.” “Vaulting the Sea” made my poor gay heart break and heal and ache as I cheered for its queer protagonist Taoyu. This story focuses on Taoyu and his best friend Hai, a pair of synchronized divers poised for success at the Beijing Olympics. With beautiful, subtle prose Wang writes about Taoyu’s coming of age of his own queer identity as well as his relationship with his mother. You can literally imagine me whisper-screaming “oh my gosh, Taoyu, I love you!” in an emotional frenzy as I flipped the pages of this oh-so-quiet-yet-compelling short story. I feel like “Vaulting the Sea” represents what Wang does best in the strongest stories in this collection: capturing real emotions and relationships affected by the complex intersection of our own social identities and the cultures we leave or still reside within.
Other standouts include “Fuerdai to the Max,” about second-generation rich Chinese youth who face few consequences for their actions until they do, “Algorithmic Problem-Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships,” about a father who tries to calculate an equation to make sense of his daughter who grew up in a culture different from his own, and “Future Cat,” about a woman who experiments with time as she settles into a boring marriage while longing for a past romantic flame. Again, I loved when Wang wrote about real relationships and how parent abandonment, mismatch between Chinese culture and mainstream American culture, and other nuanced topics affected these relationships. She shows the emotional consequences of these cultural misunderstandings, as well as the love that remains between family and friends despite these differences.
This collection as a whole feels current and well-poised to make an impact in our changing society, while still relevant to long-drawn themes of family and connection and wanting to belong. While others in the collection did not resonate as much with me – the stories that felt more experimental and the ones that did not have a strong grounding within one or two characters’ emotional experiences – I still appreciated the variety of perspectives in Home Remedies. Recommended to those who want a fresh, contemporary collection of short stories with a diversity of literary elements and points of view.
Other standouts include “Fuerdai to the Max,” about second-generation rich Chinese youth who face few consequences for their actions until they do, “Algorithmic Problem-Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships,” about a father who tries to calculate an equation to make sense of his daughter who grew up in a culture different from his own, and “Future Cat,” about a woman who experiments with time as she settles into a boring marriage while longing for a past romantic flame. Again, I loved when Wang wrote about real relationships and how parent abandonment, mismatch between Chinese culture and mainstream American culture, and other nuanced topics affected these relationships. She shows the emotional consequences of these cultural misunderstandings, as well as the love that remains between family and friends despite these differences.
This collection as a whole feels current and well-poised to make an impact in our changing society, while still relevant to long-drawn themes of family and connection and wanting to belong. While others in the collection did not resonate as much with me – the stories that felt more experimental and the ones that did not have a strong grounding within one or two characters’ emotional experiences – I still appreciated the variety of perspectives in Home Remedies. Recommended to those who want a fresh, contemporary collection of short stories with a diversity of literary elements and points of view.
April 13, 2020
A strong debut collection of short stories. Billed as being specifically about the Chinese millennial experience, but in fact it's rather broader than that; there's nothing about 'unconventional sex lives' or 'fantastic technologies' in here either. (That blurb is weird.) The 12 stories are sorted into three sections: 'Family', 'Love', and 'Time and Space'. One of the most exciting things about this collection is its variety of voices and tones, the sense that each new story represents a completely fresh perspective. At times, Xuan Juliana Wang's writing made me think of Jen George or Kristen Roupenian, but really, Home Remedies is its own thing.
My favourites were:
'Days of Being Mild': Largely plotless account of a group of Bei Piao, 'the twenty-somethings who drift aimlessly to the northern capital, a phenomenal tumble of new faces to Beijing.' They fall in love, break up, make music, watch porn, go drinking. The story is packed with details that feel authentic, tender and/or funny.
We are not good at math or saving money but we are very good at being young.
'Fuerdai to the Max': The narrator and his friend Kenny are fuerdai – second-generation rich. They've been studying in California, but have now returned to Beijing under something of a cloud. What did they do? These overprivileged kids initially come off as oddly likeable, but the deceptively casual narrative is leading us to a horrible revelation.
By the time the police tried to find me at school, I was out of the country. They couldn't keep our names straight anyway. Zhang, Ming, Yuyao, Jirui, Kao, Duo Duo, Fung, it was all the same to the cops. They couldn't tell us apart, they didn't know if a person was missing, just thought it was one person with three names or three people with the same name.
'Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments': Presented as practical advice on dealing with emotional problems, this story progresses through a series of increasingly absurd scenarios. 'Bilingual Heartache', for example, is 'someone breaking your heart in a foreign language. It is like regular heartache but somehow it's painful in a creative, innovative way.' The advice for that one is to pray for a painful, unsightly cold sore, so 'you can instead wallow in self-pity'.
Tipple Nyquil from the bottle, and as your arms go numb and your chest sinks to the bottom of the mattress, think how much better life is now. Really!
'Vaulting the Sea': Taoyu and Hai are champion synchronised divers. Taoyu is secretly in love with Hai, but he also feels Hai is inseparable from himself; they have been training together since childhood, eating and studying together, sharing a bed. The characters' movements and interactions are described with graceful lyricism, and there are some beautiful images here, particularly the final scene.
He couldn't explain it, but he felt right in that water, a space rapturous, ancient with life.
'The Strawberry Years': As a favour to a colleague, Yang agrees to look after a Chinese actress who's visiting New York. Only she gets obsessed with his apartment and refuses to leave, protesting that it's so popular with the fans who watch her livestream, and can't Yang just find somewhere else to live? This nightmarish premise made my skin crawl, and it's brought to life precisely and effectively as Yang's identity is slowly dismantled. Ultimately, he seems to grasp at the possibilities of his chameleonic existence in New York, but an open ending leaves the reader to imagine his fate.
The actress suddenly laughed heartily even though he hadn't said anything and nothing was funny.
'Echo of the Moment': This one is, for me, the best in the book. Chinese-American Echo is living in Paris when an American acquaintance, Celine, offers her a cache of free designer clothes. When Echo presses for an explanation, the answer is macabre: the original owner – a Korean model named Mega Mun – killed herself a few days earlier. But Echo can't resist the lure of the luxurious outfits, which not only feel as though they were made for her, but also seem to have a mysterious, powerful, even supernatural effect on her life. This story is irresistibly compelling and so perfectly crafted. In fact, it's one of the best ghost stories I've read this year.
"How could anyone who owns a pair of marbled horsehair boots want to die?" she asked aloud.
I received an advance review copy of Home Remedies from the publisher through Edelweiss.
TinyLetter
My favourites were:
'Days of Being Mild': Largely plotless account of a group of Bei Piao, 'the twenty-somethings who drift aimlessly to the northern capital, a phenomenal tumble of new faces to Beijing.' They fall in love, break up, make music, watch porn, go drinking. The story is packed with details that feel authentic, tender and/or funny.
We are not good at math or saving money but we are very good at being young.
'Fuerdai to the Max': The narrator and his friend Kenny are fuerdai – second-generation rich. They've been studying in California, but have now returned to Beijing under something of a cloud. What did they do? These overprivileged kids initially come off as oddly likeable, but the deceptively casual narrative is leading us to a horrible revelation.
By the time the police tried to find me at school, I was out of the country. They couldn't keep our names straight anyway. Zhang, Ming, Yuyao, Jirui, Kao, Duo Duo, Fung, it was all the same to the cops. They couldn't tell us apart, they didn't know if a person was missing, just thought it was one person with three names or three people with the same name.
'Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments': Presented as practical advice on dealing with emotional problems, this story progresses through a series of increasingly absurd scenarios. 'Bilingual Heartache', for example, is 'someone breaking your heart in a foreign language. It is like regular heartache but somehow it's painful in a creative, innovative way.' The advice for that one is to pray for a painful, unsightly cold sore, so 'you can instead wallow in self-pity'.
Tipple Nyquil from the bottle, and as your arms go numb and your chest sinks to the bottom of the mattress, think how much better life is now. Really!
'Vaulting the Sea': Taoyu and Hai are champion synchronised divers. Taoyu is secretly in love with Hai, but he also feels Hai is inseparable from himself; they have been training together since childhood, eating and studying together, sharing a bed. The characters' movements and interactions are described with graceful lyricism, and there are some beautiful images here, particularly the final scene.
He couldn't explain it, but he felt right in that water, a space rapturous, ancient with life.
'The Strawberry Years': As a favour to a colleague, Yang agrees to look after a Chinese actress who's visiting New York. Only she gets obsessed with his apartment and refuses to leave, protesting that it's so popular with the fans who watch her livestream, and can't Yang just find somewhere else to live? This nightmarish premise made my skin crawl, and it's brought to life precisely and effectively as Yang's identity is slowly dismantled. Ultimately, he seems to grasp at the possibilities of his chameleonic existence in New York, but an open ending leaves the reader to imagine his fate.
The actress suddenly laughed heartily even though he hadn't said anything and nothing was funny.
'Echo of the Moment': This one is, for me, the best in the book. Chinese-American Echo is living in Paris when an American acquaintance, Celine, offers her a cache of free designer clothes. When Echo presses for an explanation, the answer is macabre: the original owner – a Korean model named Mega Mun – killed herself a few days earlier. But Echo can't resist the lure of the luxurious outfits, which not only feel as though they were made for her, but also seem to have a mysterious, powerful, even supernatural effect on her life. This story is irresistibly compelling and so perfectly crafted. In fact, it's one of the best ghost stories I've read this year.
"How could anyone who owns a pair of marbled horsehair boots want to die?" she asked aloud.
I received an advance review copy of Home Remedies from the publisher through Edelweiss.
TinyLetter
June 27, 2020
Really really good! These mostly realistic stories worked exceedingly well for me - especially those that were told unchronologically in a way that I have not encountered in short stories before. This way of telling a story is something I particularly enjoy, so I was very pleased when I realized what Wang was doing. Not every story did work for me but enough did that I will be reading whatever she writes next. I also cannot get over the absolutely stunning cover.
June 3, 2019
I’m usually not a huge fan of short story collections, mainly because I don’t like the “incomplete” nature of short stories and the feeling I always get that I’m being left hanging. One of the things I detest most when I’m reading is to get deep into a story and its characters, only to have it end abruptly, with no logical conclusion to speak of – the ones that annoy me the most are those that feel like the author stopped in the middle of a thought and the writing all of a sudden drops off (these are also the ones that always make me think I am missing pages somewhere and perhaps I got a defective copy of the book). I guess you can say that I like my stories with a beginning, a middle section, and an ending, with characters that I can watch grow and develop over time and maybe even become invested in, which is hard to do with short stories where the reader is often only offered a snippet of a character’s story – what’s worse is that we are usually thrown in somewhere in the middle of the story, which means that it will likely take more effort to read and understand the nuances and significance behind each story.
Given the above, I was really surprised that I enjoyed Xuan Juliana Wang’s debut short story collection Home Remedies as much as I did. This collection is billed as centering on the Chinese millennial experience and while I’m not a millennial, I found that I was still able to relate to some aspect of each story. Separated into 3 sections entitled “Family,” “Love,” and “Time and Space,” the 12 stories in this collection covered universally relatable themes, yet still managed to hone in perfectly on the cultural aspects of what it means to be Chinese in today’s society. As a Chinese-American who has lived in the U.S. practically my entire life, I found the stories about the difficulties of Chinese immigrant youth having to straddle two worlds and never being fully accepted into either one especially relatable, as it reminded me of many of the same struggles I had encountered back in my youth. This collection actually covered a lot of ground and each story managed to be deeply nuanced, despite the brevity that is usually expected with short stories. I was surprised by the depth of the stories in this collection and the cultural as well as emotional resonance that they evoked in me – as I said earlier, it’s usually difficult for me to get into short stories, but I dove into this set full force and found myself completely immersed. With that said though, I also found it frustrating that the journey with each character was so brief, with each story dropping off at what I felt was a significant moment. I wanted each story to be more complete, wanted to know what would happen to these characters.
One of the things that set this collection of short stories apart from others is the variety, as each story had a distinctive voice, not a single one the same, yet the feelings and emotions the stories explored were often commonly felt ones. I also loved the writing, which was at times lyrical, at times straightforward, depending on the story, but was always completely engaging. This is an exquisite collection, one that I absolutely recommend. If you’re the type who generally only reads a limited number of short story collections (for me, it’s due to a preference for the fully fleshed-out stories and characters that are often only found in novels), this is definitely one that needs to be included on your list. Personally, I can’t wait to see what Xuan Juliana Wang has in store for us next!
Lastly, here are a few of my favorites from this collection:
“Mott Street in July” – about the transformation a Chinese family undergoes after immigrating to the United States – the opportunities they gain but also the sacrifices they have to make. As an immigrant myself, this was the story I was able to relate to the most.
“For Our Children and For Ourselves” – about a rich, successful business woman arranging a marriage for her special needs daughter and the implications of that decision for all involved. This one was the most heartbreaking story for me, not necessarily because of how the story evolved, but the feelings evoked from what was not said – feelings that felt so familiar to me.
“Fuerdai to the Max” – about second generation Chinese rich kids who are used to not being held accountable for their actions and what happens when that day of reckoning finally arrives. This was an interesting one and I loved the angle the author took in relaying the events as they unfolded.
“Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments” – presented as anecdotal advice for various ailments such as ‘boredom,’ ‘self-doubt,’ ‘bilingual heartache,’ ‘family pressure,’ etc., this one was both whimsical and original, which I absolutely loved!
“Vaulting the Sea” – a coming-of-age story about two synchronized divers on the verge of finding success at the Olympics. This was a beautifully rendered story that I felt was the most real in the way it dealt with the characters’ emotions and relationships.
“Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships” – about a father who uses equations and algorithms to explain his relationship with his daughter, this was a fun one that depicts what happens when cultures clash within a family.
“The Strawberry Years” – about a young man named Yang who is tasked with looking after a famous actress, only to have her refuse to leave and end up overtaking his life. This one captured the ubiquitous influence of social media perfectly, which I found absolutely fascinating.
“Echo of the Moment” – about a Chinese-American girl living in Paris who finds herself in possession of an entire wardrobe of designer clothes belonging to a young model who had committed suicide a few days earlier. The supernatural slant to this story made for some compelling reading!
Received ARC from Hogarth via Edelweiss.
Given the above, I was really surprised that I enjoyed Xuan Juliana Wang’s debut short story collection Home Remedies as much as I did. This collection is billed as centering on the Chinese millennial experience and while I’m not a millennial, I found that I was still able to relate to some aspect of each story. Separated into 3 sections entitled “Family,” “Love,” and “Time and Space,” the 12 stories in this collection covered universally relatable themes, yet still managed to hone in perfectly on the cultural aspects of what it means to be Chinese in today’s society. As a Chinese-American who has lived in the U.S. practically my entire life, I found the stories about the difficulties of Chinese immigrant youth having to straddle two worlds and never being fully accepted into either one especially relatable, as it reminded me of many of the same struggles I had encountered back in my youth. This collection actually covered a lot of ground and each story managed to be deeply nuanced, despite the brevity that is usually expected with short stories. I was surprised by the depth of the stories in this collection and the cultural as well as emotional resonance that they evoked in me – as I said earlier, it’s usually difficult for me to get into short stories, but I dove into this set full force and found myself completely immersed. With that said though, I also found it frustrating that the journey with each character was so brief, with each story dropping off at what I felt was a significant moment. I wanted each story to be more complete, wanted to know what would happen to these characters.
One of the things that set this collection of short stories apart from others is the variety, as each story had a distinctive voice, not a single one the same, yet the feelings and emotions the stories explored were often commonly felt ones. I also loved the writing, which was at times lyrical, at times straightforward, depending on the story, but was always completely engaging. This is an exquisite collection, one that I absolutely recommend. If you’re the type who generally only reads a limited number of short story collections (for me, it’s due to a preference for the fully fleshed-out stories and characters that are often only found in novels), this is definitely one that needs to be included on your list. Personally, I can’t wait to see what Xuan Juliana Wang has in store for us next!
Lastly, here are a few of my favorites from this collection:
“Mott Street in July” – about the transformation a Chinese family undergoes after immigrating to the United States – the opportunities they gain but also the sacrifices they have to make. As an immigrant myself, this was the story I was able to relate to the most.
“For Our Children and For Ourselves” – about a rich, successful business woman arranging a marriage for her special needs daughter and the implications of that decision for all involved. This one was the most heartbreaking story for me, not necessarily because of how the story evolved, but the feelings evoked from what was not said – feelings that felt so familiar to me.
“Fuerdai to the Max” – about second generation Chinese rich kids who are used to not being held accountable for their actions and what happens when that day of reckoning finally arrives. This was an interesting one and I loved the angle the author took in relaying the events as they unfolded.
“Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments” – presented as anecdotal advice for various ailments such as ‘boredom,’ ‘self-doubt,’ ‘bilingual heartache,’ ‘family pressure,’ etc., this one was both whimsical and original, which I absolutely loved!
“Vaulting the Sea” – a coming-of-age story about two synchronized divers on the verge of finding success at the Olympics. This was a beautifully rendered story that I felt was the most real in the way it dealt with the characters’ emotions and relationships.
“Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships” – about a father who uses equations and algorithms to explain his relationship with his daughter, this was a fun one that depicts what happens when cultures clash within a family.
“The Strawberry Years” – about a young man named Yang who is tasked with looking after a famous actress, only to have her refuse to leave and end up overtaking his life. This one captured the ubiquitous influence of social media perfectly, which I found absolutely fascinating.
“Echo of the Moment” – about a Chinese-American girl living in Paris who finds herself in possession of an entire wardrobe of designer clothes belonging to a young model who had committed suicide a few days earlier. The supernatural slant to this story made for some compelling reading!
Received ARC from Hogarth via Edelweiss.
August 28, 2021
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While browsing a charity shop I picked up this collection of short stories. What drew me the most to Home Remedies was its cover (bright pink in my edition), and while I wasn't expecting to like every single story, I hoped that I would find a few to be memorable. Sadly, none of the stories drew me in. Wang examines some serious—and potentially compelling—themes (generational differences, dislocation and deracination, familial expectations vs. personal identity) but her stories never led anywhere interesting, they meandered without focus, loosing themselves in details or exchanges that did not really contribute to the overall storyline, only to reach anticlimactic conclusions.
The collection is divided in three sections ('Family', 'Love', 'Time & Space'), each containing 4 stories. One would think that these stories somehow focused on the topic of the section they are in, but they don't. Take the story 'The Strawberry Years', I don't think it had anything to do with 'Love', and yet it was in that section (the story is a surreal 'someone is taking over my life' kind of thing). One would think that a father-daughter story would fit in the 'Family' category but no, we find it in 'Time & Space' instead. But this is a minor, and I recognise, ultimately superficial 'quibble'. It probably wouldn't have bothered me as much if I found any of the stories interesting or affecting...but they left me cold. The author's prose presented us with some pretty phrases, and some lucid imagery, but her characters and their experiences felt flat. Characters who belong to older generations are traditional, conservative, hard-workers. Younger characters are materialistic, lazy, opportunistic, and keen to emulate Western ways.
I read Home Remedies less than a week ago and I can hardly remember any of its stories.
Anyway, just because the author's style did not really resonate with me doesn't mean you should skip this one.
While browsing a charity shop I picked up this collection of short stories. What drew me the most to Home Remedies was its cover (bright pink in my edition), and while I wasn't expecting to like every single story, I hoped that I would find a few to be memorable. Sadly, none of the stories drew me in. Wang examines some serious—and potentially compelling—themes (generational differences, dislocation and deracination, familial expectations vs. personal identity) but her stories never led anywhere interesting, they meandered without focus, loosing themselves in details or exchanges that did not really contribute to the overall storyline, only to reach anticlimactic conclusions.
The collection is divided in three sections ('Family', 'Love', 'Time & Space'), each containing 4 stories. One would think that these stories somehow focused on the topic of the section they are in, but they don't. Take the story 'The Strawberry Years', I don't think it had anything to do with 'Love', and yet it was in that section (the story is a surreal 'someone is taking over my life' kind of thing). One would think that a father-daughter story would fit in the 'Family' category but no, we find it in 'Time & Space' instead. But this is a minor, and I recognise, ultimately superficial 'quibble'. It probably wouldn't have bothered me as much if I found any of the stories interesting or affecting...but they left me cold. The author's prose presented us with some pretty phrases, and some lucid imagery, but her characters and their experiences felt flat. Characters who belong to older generations are traditional, conservative, hard-workers. Younger characters are materialistic, lazy, opportunistic, and keen to emulate Western ways.
I read Home Remedies less than a week ago and I can hardly remember any of its stories.
Anyway, just because the author's style did not really resonate with me doesn't mean you should skip this one.
February 24, 2020
The spirit of these stories are 21st century Chinese youth with less baggage and more autonomy, whether they are in China (Beijing mostly) or elsewhere.
This was another story collection from the Tournament of Books longlist.
My favorite stories (linked to literary mags when available):
-Mott Street in July
-Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments
-Vaulting the Sea
This was another story collection from the Tournament of Books longlist.
My favorite stories (linked to literary mags when available):
-Mott Street in July
-Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments
-Vaulting the Sea
July 9, 2022
This collection of short stories blew me away. One doesn't expect such level of expertise and command of the genre from a first collection, but Wang is definitely a short story writer. She may go on to write novels as well, but this is a genre she owns.
This is one of those cases in which the author's being a "millennial" is incidental. The themes are universal. The writing is fantastic. Amazing.
This is one of those cases in which the author's being a "millennial" is incidental. The themes are universal. The writing is fantastic. Amazing.
July 16, 2019
What a remarkable, imaginative collection of stories. There is nothing here that I've seen before. The garden of Chinese characters is exotic to me simply because I've known nothing about them. The writing is elegant, sophisticated, and sometimes mature beyond what I would expect from somebody who looks as young as Wang does in her photo. Stories range from self-entitled rich kids who I didn't know existed in Communist China to old souls who understand growing old and loss and change.
Kudos to the cover designer who understands how to represent the indescribable imagination of this writing: cherries popping out of lush Asian hair flying up from a young forehead with pretty eye brows.
Kudos to the cover designer who understands how to represent the indescribable imagination of this writing: cherries popping out of lush Asian hair flying up from a young forehead with pretty eye brows.
March 25, 2019
One of my favorite sensations as a reader is stumbling across something perfect and unexpected, something you weren't looking for and never knew you needed, and you come away feeling richer for the experience. Home Remedies does that, repeatedly, with each strange little slice of life feeling like a concentrated burst of observation, a window into a truly strange stranger's head, rendering a consistently alien experience somehow relatable, while your brain marinates in a stew of subtle details that feel right even when you're not entirely sure what they all mean.
What we have here, in simple terms, is a collection of short stories written by a Chinese-American author. We consistently see tales of emigration--families, children, students, hustlers, and others leaving China to restart their lives in the United States--and what that feels like for all involved. We also see China from a perspective few Americans could conjure on their own, the kind of perspective born from some kind of lived experience--whether first-hand or absorbed from family and friends, I'm not entirely sure, but it certainly feels real as you read. As I dug deeper into the book, I felt the weight of Chinese culture looming in the background, in ways I hadn't expected and ways I can't really articulate in a short review.
I realize as I read all that back it sounds like I'm describing a travelogue, but Home Remedies isn't that at all. It's a swirl of characters built out of bundled observations, little bursts of thought and feeling, all perfectly rendered, somehow cohering into a series of tiny stories, but stories built on the backs of human-sized lives, if that makes sense. Xuan Juliana Wang experiments with form several times throughout the book, sometimes employing impressionistic lists but just as often keeping things straightforward on the structural front only to swerve into magical realism to keep us on our toes. It's a cop-out to point to Raymond Carver when describing good short fiction, but I think there's a reasonable parallel here to the extent Wang is able to do so much with so little, to leave only a few threads on the page but lace those threads with mystique, heart, detachment, longing, unease, humor, millennial ennui, i.e., the stuff of life. Her characters are traced in electric prose but carved in relief, silhouettes painted on the page with just enough detail, just enough narrative to make them indelible and intoxicating, relatable but ultimately unknowable. It's a hell of a trick, and no accident. Wang is confident, subtle, and remarkably consistent, toying with expectations, cleanly sidestepping cliches, all that good stuff.
If I have a criticism, it's that I wish this book were longer. I couldn't put it down, and I probably read it faster than I should have. Before I knew it the end was upon me, and I was bummed, left yearning and bereft. Home Remedies gets my highest recommendation for short fiction; run don't walk, do the right thing, yadda yadda.
What we have here, in simple terms, is a collection of short stories written by a Chinese-American author. We consistently see tales of emigration--families, children, students, hustlers, and others leaving China to restart their lives in the United States--and what that feels like for all involved. We also see China from a perspective few Americans could conjure on their own, the kind of perspective born from some kind of lived experience--whether first-hand or absorbed from family and friends, I'm not entirely sure, but it certainly feels real as you read. As I dug deeper into the book, I felt the weight of Chinese culture looming in the background, in ways I hadn't expected and ways I can't really articulate in a short review.
I realize as I read all that back it sounds like I'm describing a travelogue, but Home Remedies isn't that at all. It's a swirl of characters built out of bundled observations, little bursts of thought and feeling, all perfectly rendered, somehow cohering into a series of tiny stories, but stories built on the backs of human-sized lives, if that makes sense. Xuan Juliana Wang experiments with form several times throughout the book, sometimes employing impressionistic lists but just as often keeping things straightforward on the structural front only to swerve into magical realism to keep us on our toes. It's a cop-out to point to Raymond Carver when describing good short fiction, but I think there's a reasonable parallel here to the extent Wang is able to do so much with so little, to leave only a few threads on the page but lace those threads with mystique, heart, detachment, longing, unease, humor, millennial ennui, i.e., the stuff of life. Her characters are traced in electric prose but carved in relief, silhouettes painted on the page with just enough detail, just enough narrative to make them indelible and intoxicating, relatable but ultimately unknowable. It's a hell of a trick, and no accident. Wang is confident, subtle, and remarkably consistent, toying with expectations, cleanly sidestepping cliches, all that good stuff.
If I have a criticism, it's that I wish this book were longer. I couldn't put it down, and I probably read it faster than I should have. Before I knew it the end was upon me, and I was bummed, left yearning and bereft. Home Remedies gets my highest recommendation for short fiction; run don't walk, do the right thing, yadda yadda.
June 24, 2019
"Taoyu sent Hai's name echoing in the halls of the dormitory. … he ran … to him at full speed. He needed something that only Hai could give him. He knew it was love. Only Hai could replace his wasted heart with his own." — "Vaulting the Sea," Xuan Juliana Wang
Wang wields the raw, cathartic quality of a storyteller who can render her readers to tears with no effort at all. A reader like me, especially, who sobbed in the corner of a coffee shop as I pored over these characters and the bottomless depths of emotion and concern with which she writes their lives. For anyone who's ever felt like a trespasser in their own body, culture or country, I believe Home Remedies was written just for you.
Through 12 stories, Home Remedies offers an eyewitness view at a number of Chinese individuals whose lives become upended by abandonment, death, sexual and spiritual awakenings. "Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments" gives a litany of hard pills to swallow for afflictions of grief, self-pity, and consolation; "For Our Children and For Ourselves" steers an arranged marriage in the path of emotional departure in lieu of financial happy endings; "Vaulting the Sea" (my absolute favorite among them all) finds two Chinese boys — one gay, the other straight — who mature into synchronized diving celebrities at the summit of a sexual coming-of-age. The latter of these stories, in a way, could arguably level with the devastating homoeroticism of Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain.
Written with intricate beauty and rage, these glamourous stories could easily rival any American millennial drama. Wherever your myths and prejudices lie on Chinese narratives, let them vanish in the advent of Wang's remarkable voice.
Thank you again, Hogarth, for allowing me to read Home Remedies in advance — it was a wonderful experience.
If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram.
Wang wields the raw, cathartic quality of a storyteller who can render her readers to tears with no effort at all. A reader like me, especially, who sobbed in the corner of a coffee shop as I pored over these characters and the bottomless depths of emotion and concern with which she writes their lives. For anyone who's ever felt like a trespasser in their own body, culture or country, I believe Home Remedies was written just for you.
Through 12 stories, Home Remedies offers an eyewitness view at a number of Chinese individuals whose lives become upended by abandonment, death, sexual and spiritual awakenings. "Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments" gives a litany of hard pills to swallow for afflictions of grief, self-pity, and consolation; "For Our Children and For Ourselves" steers an arranged marriage in the path of emotional departure in lieu of financial happy endings; "Vaulting the Sea" (my absolute favorite among them all) finds two Chinese boys — one gay, the other straight — who mature into synchronized diving celebrities at the summit of a sexual coming-of-age. The latter of these stories, in a way, could arguably level with the devastating homoeroticism of Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain.
Written with intricate beauty and rage, these glamourous stories could easily rival any American millennial drama. Wherever your myths and prejudices lie on Chinese narratives, let them vanish in the advent of Wang's remarkable voice.
Thank you again, Hogarth, for allowing me to read Home Remedies in advance — it was a wonderful experience.
If you liked my review, feel free to follow me @parisperusing on Instagram.
February 9, 2020
The series of stories which make-up 'Home Remedies' explores the experiences of the 21st century Chinese diaspora both in China and across the Western world. Two themes permeate the stories; firstly the sense of dislocation and displacement felt by the nouveau rich, a sense that money and materials goods will somehow replace the sense of spiritual emptiness engendered by their sense of rootlessness. Secondly is the strange sense of angst brought about by living in the modern world; a world dominated which is dominated by empty signs and symbols, a world where the most superficial feelings trump anything real-not since Murakami has a writer so subtle dissected the endless trappings of the modern world. Many of the most powerful stories deal with characters who are either unable to express their emotions for others-whether it is Taoyu's inexpressible feelings for his diving companion Hai or the father who sees the world solely in algorithms and so cannot understand, until it is too late, the feelings which his daughter brings out in him in 'Algorithmic Problem Solving for Relationships'.
Alternatively characters try to find solace or seek meaning in things, only to find themselves irreparably changed; so the character Echo is transformed from a nondescript student into a fashionista after she steals the clothes of a Korean girl who committed suicide and Maggie's attempts to speed up her life via a magical wine ageing machine ends in tragedy but also in the realisation that life, with all of its hardships and insecurities, is in and of itself worth living and we should not have to resort to skipping even the most mundane and quotidian aspects of it;
"A thousand sunrises and sunsets carry her along the edge of time. As she tumbles further from infinite trajectories; from the outrages of her childhood, from birth. That haunted autumn evening becomes last autumn, the autumn before and the one before that. Stop, Maggie blurts out. Knowing then that she doesn't want to live through the hard moments anymore. She just wants to live!"
Alternatively characters try to find solace or seek meaning in things, only to find themselves irreparably changed; so the character Echo is transformed from a nondescript student into a fashionista after she steals the clothes of a Korean girl who committed suicide and Maggie's attempts to speed up her life via a magical wine ageing machine ends in tragedy but also in the realisation that life, with all of its hardships and insecurities, is in and of itself worth living and we should not have to resort to skipping even the most mundane and quotidian aspects of it;
"A thousand sunrises and sunsets carry her along the edge of time. As she tumbles further from infinite trajectories; from the outrages of her childhood, from birth. That haunted autumn evening becomes last autumn, the autumn before and the one before that. Stop, Maggie blurts out. Knowing then that she doesn't want to live through the hard moments anymore. She just wants to live!"
Read
November 7, 2021HOME REMEDIES is a collection of 12 stories about Chinese millennials, both in the U.S. and China. I wish I hadn't waited so long to write this review ... I remember the following stories as being the strongest for me: "Mott Street in July," "Days of Being Mild," "For Our Children and Ourselves" and "Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships." I also like short stories with unique structures, so the title story ("Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening Ailments") was a stand-out. I don't remember being blown away by the collection as a whole, but there were some strong stories in here.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my free advance copy of this book.
01.02.2019: Called a “radiant new talent” by Lauren Groff, Xuan Juliana Wang has written a debut collection about Chinese millennials. Weike Wang says these stories “surprise and challenge in wonderful, wonderful ways.” - Electric Lit
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my free advance copy of this book.
01.02.2019: Called a “radiant new talent” by Lauren Groff, Xuan Juliana Wang has written a debut collection about Chinese millennials. Weike Wang says these stories “surprise and challenge in wonderful, wonderful ways.” - Electric Lit
July 29, 2020
So bleak. A collection of short stories that are all sad, melancholic or downright depressing. The writing is good, some nice poetic turns of phrases and it's rather impressive how many different bleak scenarios the author managed to come up with.
Lost immigrants in America, lost young adults in materialistic China, lost second generation immigrant kids between two cultures, no emotional connections between humans. Without a single happy end for any of the characters, these stories leave you decidedly disenchanted with the world. Which is the opposite of what I'm looking for in literature.
The author is talented. Hope she will also bring some joy into the world with her future writing.
Lost immigrants in America, lost young adults in materialistic China, lost second generation immigrant kids between two cultures, no emotional connections between humans. Without a single happy end for any of the characters, these stories leave you decidedly disenchanted with the world. Which is the opposite of what I'm looking for in literature.
The author is talented. Hope she will also bring some joy into the world with her future writing.
November 18, 2019
I understand the enthusiasm for these stories. I wish the execution was more consistent though. A couple ("The Art of Straying Off Course", for instance) didn't do anything for me at all.
March 11, 2019
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'It’s what Taoyu wanted, to disappear from Hai’s life completely, to leave a wound that would ache. That was the only way they could be equals.'
Home Remedies is a gorgeous collection of stories about Chinese immigration, family structure, love, sex and the privilege of choices. The future for each character is never certain, and splits open guiding them to places they never imagined they would be. Home, some make their way in American life with ease, abandoning their old skins and sometimes their family too. Others cling to the old ways of a country they will never return to. One thing is certain, each person will make their own story, even if it means becoming someone other than what’s expected.
In White Tiger of the West, the world is weary of Grandmasters, there no longer seems to be a place for spirituality but for one obedient little girl Grandmaster Tu could be the very thing that awakens a tiger, and gives her the flight of freedom. Home Remedies of the old involved tonics, tinctures, herbs… but in one story remedies are cleverly applied to survive say, a “bilingual heart” and “self-doubt”. Olympic divers are one in Vaulting the Sea, but what love is equal? Just how much can you meld yourself to another? I thought this was a beautifully painful tale of love and rejection, if any story is about identity it was this one. My favorite and most heart-breaking is Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships. Logic as the meaning, the answer to all of lives obstacles simple application of algorithms “a theory that proves itself day after day” until a former professor, clueless father needs to solve the new problem of his daughter Wendy, who “I somehow managed to drive away from me.” My heart! By far the best story within!
In this collection time stands still or rushes past. Characters are emerging into a bright future or retiring from their dreams, wearing clothes of the dead, or slicing through water in perfect sync. Sometimes they are just suffering through an “unremarkable period” of their life. It is stories about the youth, but the old have their say too, it’s like they live in different worlds sometimes. Moving, strange, exciting, biting… fantastic.
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
Crown Publishing
Hogarth
'It’s what Taoyu wanted, to disappear from Hai’s life completely, to leave a wound that would ache. That was the only way they could be equals.'
Home Remedies is a gorgeous collection of stories about Chinese immigration, family structure, love, sex and the privilege of choices. The future for each character is never certain, and splits open guiding them to places they never imagined they would be. Home, some make their way in American life with ease, abandoning their old skins and sometimes their family too. Others cling to the old ways of a country they will never return to. One thing is certain, each person will make their own story, even if it means becoming someone other than what’s expected.
In White Tiger of the West, the world is weary of Grandmasters, there no longer seems to be a place for spirituality but for one obedient little girl Grandmaster Tu could be the very thing that awakens a tiger, and gives her the flight of freedom. Home Remedies of the old involved tonics, tinctures, herbs… but in one story remedies are cleverly applied to survive say, a “bilingual heart” and “self-doubt”. Olympic divers are one in Vaulting the Sea, but what love is equal? Just how much can you meld yourself to another? I thought this was a beautifully painful tale of love and rejection, if any story is about identity it was this one. My favorite and most heart-breaking is Algorithmic Problem Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships. Logic as the meaning, the answer to all of lives obstacles simple application of algorithms “a theory that proves itself day after day” until a former professor, clueless father needs to solve the new problem of his daughter Wendy, who “I somehow managed to drive away from me.” My heart! By far the best story within!
In this collection time stands still or rushes past. Characters are emerging into a bright future or retiring from their dreams, wearing clothes of the dead, or slicing through water in perfect sync. Sometimes they are just suffering through an “unremarkable period” of their life. It is stories about the youth, but the old have their say too, it’s like they live in different worlds sometimes. Moving, strange, exciting, biting… fantastic.
Publication Date: May 14, 2019
Crown Publishing
Hogarth
August 2, 2019
This book is ok. I was excited to read it because it's a collection of short stories from various perspectives of Chinese millennials and some of the stories are set in familiar places, like the Bay Area. However, almost all of these stories felt like talking to someone who seems to have a lot more depth than they actually do, when you get to know them. I feel like I've known these types of people before--who seem really ~broken~ and ~lost~ and if they have money and privilege, use it as a means to act out and demonstrate how ~messed up~ they are. I didn't feel like any of the characters were likeable, which isn't something I usually have a problem with, but there just wasn't much to them besides being unlikeable and doing immoral things. The writing was pretty good, but there wasn't much meat to sink my teeth in (or, should I say--there wasn't much soy curls to sink my teeth in, since I've stopped eating meat recently).
July 26, 2019
This is a great debut collection! I share the consensus about "Vaulting the Sea" being a favorite. Wang masterfully intersects individual Asian experiences with the societies they exist in, giving these stories both a grand and intimate feel.
November 29, 2020
oh i really, really loved this, it's just about so many things and so well-written and moving
August 25, 2019
3.5 rounded up
April 24, 2020
“What do we really have but our moral consciousness?”
May 24, 2019
A stunning debut short story collection that is about so much more than just the young Chinese voices it captures. Wang’s voice is strong and distinct, different in every story, which is quite a feat of its own. I felt each of the characters inhabiting the pages, almost as if they could have held their own novel instead of just fifteen to twenty pages. I can’t wait to see what is next from this writer.
There are three parts to the book, “Family,” “Love,” and “Time and Space,” and I had a favorite story from each section.
“Mott Street in July” is about a family of Chinese Americans, specifically the experience of the kids growing up as the first of their family in America—the sacrifices, pains, mistakes, and opportunities. But more broadly, it is an exquisite story about the divide, clash, coming together, and remaking of culture into something new.
“Fuerdai to the Max” is about the second generation rich, narrated by a kid you can’t help but to like, despite his extreme over privilege and lax ideas about consequences and the way things should work.
“Echo of the Moment” was my favorite of the collection, about a girl visiting Paris alone who finds herself in possession of a dead girl’s wardrobe. The clothes turn her into a celebrity, but it’s like a strange ghost story—she’s someone else, inhabiting someone else’s life.
This is a collection that short story readers will delight in.
My thanks to Hogarth/Crown Publishing for sending me this one to read and review.
There are three parts to the book, “Family,” “Love,” and “Time and Space,” and I had a favorite story from each section.
“Mott Street in July” is about a family of Chinese Americans, specifically the experience of the kids growing up as the first of their family in America—the sacrifices, pains, mistakes, and opportunities. But more broadly, it is an exquisite story about the divide, clash, coming together, and remaking of culture into something new.
“Fuerdai to the Max” is about the second generation rich, narrated by a kid you can’t help but to like, despite his extreme over privilege and lax ideas about consequences and the way things should work.
“Echo of the Moment” was my favorite of the collection, about a girl visiting Paris alone who finds herself in possession of a dead girl’s wardrobe. The clothes turn her into a celebrity, but it’s like a strange ghost story—she’s someone else, inhabiting someone else’s life.
This is a collection that short story readers will delight in.
My thanks to Hogarth/Crown Publishing for sending me this one to read and review.
August 21, 2020
Loved this! I don’t typically like short stories cuz they feel like one night stands- weirdly intimate but always leaving me hanging.
This is a collection of stories about...what felt like the “modern” chinese, chinese american, chinese diaspora experience. THIS IS WELL WRITTEN- easy, poetic, emotional, interesting, moving. Though I’m chinese american, i don’t know much about the different pockets of subcultures in Chinese twenty somethings, and this was a lovely fictional look into underground artists, fuerdai, actresses, and just gave me more human feelings and emotions to attach to Chinese faces.
On the Chinese diaspora side, oomph! Chefs kiss! I resonated with many of the stories. I love that you can detect the true and recognizable immigrant experience without that being the subject of the piece. That feels like real life. Second gen Chinese Americans go through bouts of mid life crisis, loneliness, weirdness while also doing Chinese-ish things like eating random pickled veggies and talking to their Chinese grandparents on the phone and paying respect to their parents hardships.
Good book! Worth a read stories that are small in size but packed with rich human experiences :)
p.s. you won’t have to be Chinese to like this
This is a collection of stories about...what felt like the “modern” chinese, chinese american, chinese diaspora experience. THIS IS WELL WRITTEN- easy, poetic, emotional, interesting, moving. Though I’m chinese american, i don’t know much about the different pockets of subcultures in Chinese twenty somethings, and this was a lovely fictional look into underground artists, fuerdai, actresses, and just gave me more human feelings and emotions to attach to Chinese faces.
On the Chinese diaspora side, oomph! Chefs kiss! I resonated with many of the stories. I love that you can detect the true and recognizable immigrant experience without that being the subject of the piece. That feels like real life. Second gen Chinese Americans go through bouts of mid life crisis, loneliness, weirdness while also doing Chinese-ish things like eating random pickled veggies and talking to their Chinese grandparents on the phone and paying respect to their parents hardships.
Good book! Worth a read stories that are small in size but packed with rich human experiences :)
p.s. you won’t have to be Chinese to like this
May 12, 2019
Read my review on my blog: https://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/...
**I was given an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
Let me cut to the chase...I've added Wang to my "auto-buy" authors list. If this is her debut, I can only imagine what else is to come...and I'm excited for it! Her ability to create layers of depth in each short story and characters who are complex, ambitious, and achingly unsure of themselves had me tearing through this entire collection in a single morning.
**I was given an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
Let me cut to the chase...I've added Wang to my "auto-buy" authors list. If this is her debut, I can only imagine what else is to come...and I'm excited for it! Her ability to create layers of depth in each short story and characters who are complex, ambitious, and achingly unsure of themselves had me tearing through this entire collection in a single morning.
November 21, 2022
stolen from the nyc linkedin library- thanks mr in!
i chose this collection of short stories because i want to read more asian american literature, and this book was a solid choice! there was a huge variety in voices and backgrounds that i was shocked all these short stories came from the same author. but i felt that most of the stories fell a little flat- maybe half of them started strong but ended nowhere, and i felt myself longing for something more in the ones w promising themes.
there are some wonderful gems in here that i’ll definitely return to, like “home remedies for non-life-threatening ailments”, “vaulting the sea”, and “algorithmic problem-solving for father-daughter relationships”. that last one in particular gmfu in the plane bc of how much i resonated w that story :”)
i chose this collection of short stories because i want to read more asian american literature, and this book was a solid choice! there was a huge variety in voices and backgrounds that i was shocked all these short stories came from the same author. but i felt that most of the stories fell a little flat- maybe half of them started strong but ended nowhere, and i felt myself longing for something more in the ones w promising themes.
there are some wonderful gems in here that i’ll definitely return to, like “home remedies for non-life-threatening ailments”, “vaulting the sea”, and “algorithmic problem-solving for father-daughter relationships”. that last one in particular gmfu in the plane bc of how much i resonated w that story :”)
June 12, 2019
A very good collection that takes us around the globe while maintaining focus on the individual characters. I'm quite a fan of the those short stories that use the last page or paragraph to jump forward in time and have the character looking back and the technique is employed beautifully here--sometimes painfully as we realize that people who do bad things aren't usually punished or even regretful.
Recommended.
Recommended.
April 14, 2021
Xuan Juliana Wang’s “Home Remedies” is a very fresh collection of short stories. Fresh in the sense that it breaks with the more traditional way of tackling immigration or identity by older generations of Chinese-American authors. Wang is a millennial, just 7 years younger than I am, and as she said in the conversation in the podcast Between the Covers (which made me buy and read her book in the first place), she comes from a place of “not trying to make my parents understand me; not setting myself against who they want me to be”.
Her stories are quirky, with sometimes unusual, unexpected plot twists and endings. There is an echo of familiarity, of “Shanghai Baby” by Wei Hui or “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyun Li, or even the Taiwanese film “Your Name Engraved Herein” by Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu in some stories. However, Wang’s style is unmistakably hers. Her Post-‘80 characters (the term was coined for the Chinese mainly urbanites born in the 80s after the introduction of the one-child policy) are more confident looking for their own identities even if they don’t know exactly who they want to be. The main difference between them and those in books written by an older generation of Chinese-American authors is that Wang’s characters do not question their right to individualism and being in charge of their own lives. They don’t always succeed in having full control over their fate but they themselves try to make decisions. At the same time they test the boundaries of reality.
Xuan Juliana Wang teaches literature at UCLA and focuses on books about the ‘bad kids’ - Chinese young people who do not fulfil the dreams and aspirations of their parents. She herself writes about them and her stories are a fantastic addition to the voices of and about the young generation of the Chinese or Chinese-Americans, with a new focus and a sharp eye and imagination which knows no bounds.
Her stories are quirky, with sometimes unusual, unexpected plot twists and endings. There is an echo of familiarity, of “Shanghai Baby” by Wei Hui or “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by Yiyun Li, or even the Taiwanese film “Your Name Engraved Herein” by Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu in some stories. However, Wang’s style is unmistakably hers. Her Post-‘80 characters (the term was coined for the Chinese mainly urbanites born in the 80s after the introduction of the one-child policy) are more confident looking for their own identities even if they don’t know exactly who they want to be. The main difference between them and those in books written by an older generation of Chinese-American authors is that Wang’s characters do not question their right to individualism and being in charge of their own lives. They don’t always succeed in having full control over their fate but they themselves try to make decisions. At the same time they test the boundaries of reality.
Xuan Juliana Wang teaches literature at UCLA and focuses on books about the ‘bad kids’ - Chinese young people who do not fulfil the dreams and aspirations of their parents. She herself writes about them and her stories are a fantastic addition to the voices of and about the young generation of the Chinese or Chinese-Americans, with a new focus and a sharp eye and imagination which knows no bounds.
August 27, 2020
Xuan Juliana Wang's debut collection of short stories, Home Remedies, is split into three sections, 'Family', 'Love' and 'Time' - though I wasn't sure this division was necessary, as while the stories do fall into certain groups, they don't mirror these themes. Wang showcases her versatility by writing in a number of different registers. One lot of stories - 'Days of Being Mild' - 'Fuerdai to the Max' - are told in first-person and focus on young Chinese people living either in China or in the US who are pursuing the kind of unfocused millennial existence that has been explored in a fair amount of fiction, living in large houseshares, making art and having messy relationships. Another lot - 'Mott Street in July' - 'White Tiger of the West' - adopt a more distant third-person register and explore generational dynamics with reference to more traditional Chinese ways of life. We also have a couple with the kind of cutesy, clever titles that I can't deal with at all - 'Home Remedies for Non-Life-Threatening-Ailments' - 'Algorithmic Problem-Solving for Father-Daughter Relationships' - that impose certain structures, such as a list of remedies or algorithms, on their narratives in a way that looks clever but always ends up being so reductive. It's not surprising that the best story in the collection, 'Vaulting the Sea', which considers the relationship between two young male synchronised divers who represent China in international competitions, doesn't fit into any of these slots. However, although I appreciated its sympathetic development of one young man's feelings for the other, it concludes with an image that underlines the symbolism of the story far too obviously. This sits in contrast to the majority of the stories in this collection, which go too far the other way and simply trail off with no sense of resolution. I really wanted to like this more, and I know several bloggers whose opinions I trust are big fans, but I found it bland and disappointing. 2.5 stars.
June 16, 2019
It's overall well done technically but I was underwhelmed.
-each story is different and innovative (different from one another; nothing repeated)
-the punchline or climax is flat or nonexistent, (and I often wondered if I missed something or if the story was unformed or incomplete; some experiment that peters out near or at the end)
-stories are quirky, verging on gimmicky at a certain point (and makes me wonder if short stories should be packaged in a collection...or read serially)
-tone and style waver between simple and simplistic but somewhat anemic
In a few of the stories, I think the author does aptly captured the robotic, self-righteous materialism that some PRC Chinese have and the suffering oppression new and poor immigrants endure.
Of the 12, these stood out: "Vaulting the Sky" and "Mott Street in July"
Some beautiful passages:
"She alone searched for the opening into the concealed passageways that wound through each of her parents' hearts, into the things they didn't tell her about."
"...Theirs was a Chinese love. It was not about making each other happy. It was about sacrifice. It was a love devoted to suffering over and over again for each other, each getting a turn to give up something he or she did not want for the other, until one of them died."
"To the people in the stands, they looked like two wings of a single bird. The pool was the sea and the impact an embrace."
-each story is different and innovative (different from one another; nothing repeated)
-the punchline or climax is flat or nonexistent, (and I often wondered if I missed something or if the story was unformed or incomplete; some experiment that peters out near or at the end)
-stories are quirky, verging on gimmicky at a certain point (and makes me wonder if short stories should be packaged in a collection...or read serially)
-tone and style waver between simple and simplistic but somewhat anemic
In a few of the stories, I think the author does aptly captured the robotic, self-righteous materialism that some PRC Chinese have and the suffering oppression new and poor immigrants endure.
Of the 12, these stood out: "Vaulting the Sky" and "Mott Street in July"
Some beautiful passages:
"She alone searched for the opening into the concealed passageways that wound through each of her parents' hearts, into the things they didn't tell her about."
"...Theirs was a Chinese love. It was not about making each other happy. It was about sacrifice. It was a love devoted to suffering over and over again for each other, each getting a turn to give up something he or she did not want for the other, until one of them died."
"To the people in the stands, they looked like two wings of a single bird. The pool was the sea and the impact an embrace."
August 10, 2019
Home Remedies was a very compelling assemblage of stories about the dilemmas and sense of not belonging as it pertains to transplanting one's roots elsewhere.
One of my favorite stories was The Strawberry Years that dealt with the harsh reality of how people view social media and the heights one will take to please others. A woman develops a compulsive interest in a man's apartment because her followers have fallen in love with the place while she is live streaming. The story gets pretty eerie from there.
Another favorite of mine is one that shows just how screwed up the world is today, fascinated with material possessions. A woman named Echo is obsessed with another woman’s clothes who recently committed suicide. I mean, really, why? Call me weird because I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
Days Being Mild was about a group of youngsters who people Beijing and get caught up with everyday fancies of life.
The book affords the reader a glimpse into all sectors of society. I'm a short story fan, and this one made the grade for me. #netgalley #homeremedies
One of my favorite stories was The Strawberry Years that dealt with the harsh reality of how people view social media and the heights one will take to please others. A woman develops a compulsive interest in a man's apartment because her followers have fallen in love with the place while she is live streaming. The story gets pretty eerie from there.
Another favorite of mine is one that shows just how screwed up the world is today, fascinated with material possessions. A woman named Echo is obsessed with another woman’s clothes who recently committed suicide. I mean, really, why? Call me weird because I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
Days Being Mild was about a group of youngsters who people Beijing and get caught up with everyday fancies of life.
The book affords the reader a glimpse into all sectors of society. I'm a short story fan, and this one made the grade for me. #netgalley #homeremedies
July 16, 2019
I won an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway; this did not influence my review.
Two and a half stars.
Wang's stories vary greatly in tone and style, and while the stories are divided into three sections, most deal in some way with family or romantic relationships. I found some of the stories too mired in metaphor, while others only provided kaleidoscopic views into characters. A few stories especially captured my interest but I rarely found the endings satisfying. Characters in some were compelling and well-developed, while others felt like a means to an end in a story. Wang does have an intriguing imagination and I would be interested to read a novel, should she write one, but would probably not read another story collection.
Two and a half stars.
Wang's stories vary greatly in tone and style, and while the stories are divided into three sections, most deal in some way with family or romantic relationships. I found some of the stories too mired in metaphor, while others only provided kaleidoscopic views into characters. A few stories especially captured my interest but I rarely found the endings satisfying. Characters in some were compelling and well-developed, while others felt like a means to an end in a story. Wang does have an intriguing imagination and I would be interested to read a novel, should she write one, but would probably not read another story collection.
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