THE SEVENTH WAVE | NOV. 2019
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST | NOV. 2019
ORION MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019
The strength of Leila Aboulela’s incisive collection of short stories in Elswhere, Home lies in their textured, mosaic nature. Though the threaded themes of the thirteen stories feel obvious at the outset-diaspora, assimilation, loss, home-the narratives are in fact much more complex, with each character’s lay- ers of identity unfurling carefully, delib- erately, within the framework of each story. Aboulela’s life experiences deeply inform her work and add richness to her narratives. Born in Sudan, Aboulela relocated to Scotland in her mid- twenties, a move that caused her to recon- sider the internal scaffolding that made up her notions of home. Her ongoing interrogation is evident throughout the book: in the ways her characters ques- tion their sense ofself, ask assurance of each other, and turn a critical eye toward their homes, adopted or otherwise.
ORION MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019
Yuko Tsushima’s quiet, contemplative novel Territory of Light is less a novel than a collection of petrified lightning glass, each piece a self-contained time capsule of emotions, interactions, and breath.
Originally published serially in Japa- nese literary monthly Gunz0 ̄ between 1978 and 1979, each of the twelve vignettes represents one month in the life of an unnamed young mother who recently separated from her husband and is learning how to navigate her new reality while caring for their two-year-old daughter. The story starts and ends with place, but most of the narrative exists within the woman’s increasingly unstable mind.
HYPHEN MAGAZINE | JUNE 2019
Early on in Wesley Yang’s searing collection of essays, The Souls of Yellow Folk, in a profile piece about chef, TV personality and all-around badass Eddie Huang, the writer tackles the onus of representation head-on: “A model minority is a tractable, one-dimensional simulacrum of a person, stripped of complexity, nuance, danger and sexuality — a person devoid of dramatic interest.”
It’s an apt description for the sort of cartoonish stereotype that Yang is pushing back against with his collection, though it is important to note that the way he combats these misrepresentations isn’t with blunt force; rather, his tactics are a lot more meticulous, studied and layered. And, importantly, self-reflective.
HYPHEN MAGAZINE | AUG. 2018
One of the first characters readers are introduced to in Jon Pineda’s new imagery-rich novel, Let’s No One Get Hurt, is the river that curls itself around the compound where young protagonist Pearl and her ragtag group of compadres lives. Pineda compares the river at times to “tailor’s chalk” and at other times to “television static.” But the most precise description of the river — and the role it plays for Pearl in her winding path toward womanhood — is the virgule, “meaning ‘either this or that.’ Or both, fusing like a stitch.”
Or, more eloquently put in the precocious 15-year-old’s words: “Whenever I see a virgule wedged between two words, I think of it as being between two worlds, separating one side from the other. The river is a virgule.”
