Land of Big Numbers

October 12, 2020
The often haunting stories in Chen’s strong debut follow characters striving for a better futures in China as buried memories begin to surface. The stories with an allegorical bent are some of the best, among them “New Fruit,” in which a “peculiar” agricultural offering, the qiguo, first intoxicates those who eat it, then kindles politically dangerous memories of the Cultural Revolution. Another standout is “Gubeikou Spirit,” in which a train delay traps passengers below ground for months because regulations state that they “must exit at a different station from where they entered.” The absurdism takes on a haunting quality as the passengers adapt to, and then come to prefer, their confinement. The more realist stories offer subtle portrayals of the costs of political activism (“Lulu”), seemingly unbridgeable cultural and marital gulfs (“Field Notes on a Marriage”), and, in the title story, the lure of wealth in China’s booming economy. “Shanghai Murmur,” a melancholy vignette about a florist’s fascination with a rich client, is the most psychologically complex in a collection where the characters can occasionally be one-dimensional. Still, Chen’s sweeping collection comprises many small moments of beauty.

November 1, 2020

DEBUT Writer/journalist Chen's debut work is a collection of 10 contemporary short stories mostly set in China. The opening work, "Lulu," limns a young, scholarly woman's plight as narrated by her twin brother, who describes his observations of his sister's life of activism and arrests as he follows her on social media. The title work features a young man's initially successful first foray into stock investing on borrowed funds. All looks sunny until the market goes south, and he soon finds himself embezzling funds to make his investments until suddenly owing 150,000 yuan. In "Field Notes on a Marriage," a young woman finally meets her mother-in-law in China following the apparent suicide of her husband after a two-year marriage. In "Beautiful Country," a young woman from China, now living in Arizona, deals with issues pertaining to her unfaithful boyfriend. The most fanciful tale is "Flying Machine," in which an aging farmer/tinkerer dreams of being a Party member while striving to impress others with his ambitions of building an airplane. VERDICT Told in a straightforward journalist's style, Chen's stories are filled with individuals facing hardships of varying degrees, with no happy endings to be found She delves into the human psyche to ponder just how far individuals will go tolerate duress. Not light reading, but this collection may be of interest to those looking for book group titles addressing the challenges of finding success, happiness, love, and contentment.--Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2020
Wall Street Journal correspondent Chen emerges as a fiction powerhouse, each of her 10 stories an immersive literary event. ""Lulu," which first appeared in the New Yorker, is a tale about the diverging life paths of twins, the overachieving daughter and the slacker son, at least in their youth. Granta initially published "Field Notes on a Marriage," about the brief union between an American woman and an enigmatic Chinese mathematics professor. Seemingly small yet affecting moments define "Hotline Girl," in which a woman chooses independence over an abusive relationship. "On the Street Where You Live" is about a man confronted by a runaway friend's ex-lover, "Shanghai Murmur" features a flower shop employee who finds a regular customer's valuable pen, "Beautiful Country" is about a Chinese immigrant on vacation with her longtime white lover, and the collection's titular tale portrays a young man who chooses wealth over wanting. Chen plays with the slyly surreal in "New Fruit," inventing a peculiar fruit that can uplift or depress its consumer. "Flying Machine" tells of an elderly but tenacious inventor, and "Gubeikou Spirit" focuses on train passengers inexplicably trapped in a station for months. Traversing continents and cultures, moving effortlessly between China and the U.S., Chen deftly presents everyday lives that entertain, educate, and universally resonate.

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Starred review from March 1, 2021
An astonishing collection of stories about life in contemporary China by a Chinese American writer. Chen, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has an eye for the wry, poignant detail in her fiction debut: Elderly men who meet in the park to play chess bring their pet birds along, hanging the birdcages from tree branches while they play. Most of the stories are set in China. In one, a young girl who works in a flower shop becomes dangerously interested in one of her customers. In another, an older man in a remote village tries to build a robot and, later, an airplane. Whether her characters are women or men, young or old, Chen displays a remarkable ability to inhabit their minds. She is gentle and understanding with her characters so that their choices, desires, and regrets open up, petal-like, in story after story. Often, in the background or off to the side, a hint of violence will make itself known: A young man's twin sister is arrested and beaten by the police; a woman's abusive ex-boyfriend appears without warning, and she remembers his old penchant for harming animals. A young man borrows money to invest in the stock market, and as his hopes begin to plummet, he learns the details of his father's traumatic past. Again and again, Chen reveals herself to be a writer of extraordinary subtlety. Details accrue one by one, and as each story reaches its inevitable conclusion, a sense emerges that things could have gone no other way. Still, there's nothing precious or overly neat here. Chen's stories speak to both the granular mundanities of her characters' lives and to the larger cultural, historical, and economic spheres that they inhabit. She is a tremendous talent. Chen's stories are both subtle and rich, moving and wry, and in their poignancy, they seem boundless.

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