Group Reads Discussions 2023: "Spirits Abroad" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

This thread is for whole book discussions. You can absolutely talk individual stories, but you can also talk about connections, themes, and overall thoughts. This will allow us to talk less specifically about stories and ensure app users can join in somewhere.

Questions to get this discussion started:

1. Can we put together any themes in what Cho is thinking about with this collection?

2. There's both quite a bit of horror and humor in this collection. What do you think that says about the author's experiences or the experiences of others she is trying to capture?

3. What was your favorite story? What was your least favorite? Why?

4. Did you find yourself drawn into any of the thought experiments or did this collection help you think of new connections, ideas, or comparisons to other works?

Thread with spoiler tags here: Story by Story (with information about different editions)

Q&A here: Author Q&A with Zen Cho

This collection will also be discussed in the next Virtual Book Club on February 26th, 15:30 (3:30) pm GMT (10:30 AM EST).

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the stories, I appreciated the spirit theme running through the first 5 ish stories and also appreciated the variety from the Pontianak to a Dragon looking for a wife to a sentient plant.

I also got some extra enjoyment by connecting a phrase I learned when I was living in Taiwan and China for 3 months, lǐ yú yuè lóng mén which is fish jumps over the dragon gate and is a bit like knock on wood and all the students I was living with uttered this phrase whenever they were taking tests which is exactly what The Fishbowl is about. The review below explains it much, much better than I do.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Alexandra]

I am really glad this was BOTM! I liked/loved all of the stories accept two. There were many themes that resonated with me - family bonds, breaking with traditions, "unusual" relationships... I appreciated the contrast between horror and humour, the magical and the mundane.

The two stories I did not care for were "Odette", because I did not feel that the characters were fleshed out enough, and "The Four Generations of Chang E" - I liked the themes and there was poignancy there, but the world building felt incomplete, imo.

I'll try to pick five favourites (a difficult task):

"House of Aunts" - because of the aunts, because of the many laughs, because of the combination of horror, humour, romance and heartbreak.

"Prudence and the Dragon" - because it's hilarious, humane, and romantic.

"The Perseverance of Angela's Past Life - because I liked the themes of identity, looking back at yourself and coming to terms with it.

"If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try, Again" - because of the wonderful and unusual relationship. Also, I love dragons.

"Terracotta Bride" - because of the combination of fantasy, sci-fi, Chinese theology, courage and love found in unexpected places.

[Beth]

You seem to like the longer stories, Alexandra. Or at least, you chose the two longest ones--House of Aunts, and Terracotta Bride--among your favorites!

ETA: whoops, thought I was in the individual stories thread. Moving what used to be in this space there.

[Alexandra]

Beth wrote: "You seem to like the longer stories, Alexandra. Or at least, you chose the two longest ones--House of Aunts, and Terracotta Bride--among your favorites!"

Well, it seems to be true when it comes to this collection, at least ;)

[Ellen]

My favorite section was There, my least favorite Here.
I really liked House of Aunts though because of the aunts.
I had 6 aunts. I don't think they were pontianak but I wouldn't be surprised. They had strong ideas on what you should do with your life and weren't shy about letting you know.

[Beth]

As mentioned in the other thread, I read a story or two of this each day, depending on the length. That was mostly to avoid supersaturation, and it worked! It's going to be strange for a little while, not having a Zen Cho story to look forward to in my random corners of free time.

My favorite aspect of these stories is the various mythological or supernatural creatures and people: dragons, pontianaks, an imugi, Sun Wukong, and others. xxxHolic and Natsume's Book of Friends are a couple of my favorite Japanese manga, and many of these stories have a similar flavor--contemporary fantasy with a strong sense of the supernatural--but with a more vivid sense of viscera or body horror (House of Aunts, Fish Bowl, et al.). I also really liked Hell. That may sound odd. :D I suppose dealing with bureaucracy even after death would be a hassle, but it was fun to read about.

Another aspect that came across strongly were family ties between women, with a distinct mix of affection, diffidence, and bossiness.

Someone had posted in one of the Spirits Abroad threads that the stories were too metaphorical, but I guess they deleted it. I could see what they were saying, but I didn't think that aspect was so obtrusive as to lessen the stories' effect, or the collection's as a whole.

In keeping with my fondness for the mythology, my favorite stories were:
"Balik Kampung" - It features Hell (always a plus? hehe), and a sense of nostalgia for a place I've never been. ETA in retrospect, I thought I'd better specify that I don't mean Hell, (view spoiler)[or at least I don't remember it (who knows how many times I've drunk the tea and taken a dive off the bridge??) (hide spoiler)] ;) but the lake, the festival, and the house with the different colored flowers in the garden. As I've gone through the list of stories trying to think of things to talk about, this one continually stuck out. So here it is. :)
"Terracotta Bride" - another trip to Hell, and interesting relationships between the women in the household. One aspect was so subtle I missed it. Twice! (to be fair, the pov character missed it, too.)

Least favorite? Well, I didn't hate any of it, though there were definitely a couple that didn't have as strong an impact. The winner by far in this category is "First Witch of Damansara" which I've read three times, and near completely forgotten twice. (It finally stuck on a third go. not great.) "Seven Star Drum" was more of a snippet than a story.