A set of delectable short stories, often hilarious but always poignant. All of them center on identity, belonging, and family, and each feel like they could only be written by Khong.
This feeling is actually quite hard to elicit. So many creatives chase authenticity by flaunting deeply personal injuries, but very few achieve what Khong does. I don’t know if she has gone through the heartbreaks and travails of her characters. Instead, I can tell that she has been through enough to empathize with her characters while also maintaining enough distance to write them for us.
I enjoyed her previous novel, Real Americans, but I feel like these stories are stronger and more personal. My favorite was D Day, set in the few days before God turned all humans back into animals (humans were just a big mistake) but kindly allowed everyone to choose exactly which animal. It’s a clever hook into a story exploring friendship, and the premise is also just so funny! Most of the stories had this same framing: a bizarre situation, the characters’ rational-ish behavior, insight into a “big idea”, and then usually a mixed ending. I loved this frame as it helped unify the stories in the collection.
My one gripe – and one I feel about many modern short stories – is that the endings never really feel like an ending. Several of the stories (the title story My Dear You, Red Shoes, Colors from Elsewhere) felt like they could have ended at so many points. I prefer stories like D Day, where the plot devices themselves force the story to wrap up. It doesn’t need to be a happy or neat ending, but every story should close. However, I’m sure this is just a matter of personal preference.
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