#228 The Paper Menagerie- Ken Liu

#228 The Paper Menagerie- Ken Liu

The Paper Menagerie won the 2013 Nebula Awards for the year’s best Science Fiction or fantasy. This falls in the latter category. Since this is not a genre I read a lot of, it’s always a special treat to find such creativity and heart somewhere I don’t usually look.

Jack is the son of a Chinese mother and a white American father. They live in Connecticut. Growing up, whenever Jack got sad, his mother made him origami animals out of used Christmas wrapping paper. They came alive and became his companions. “I didn’t know this at the time, but Mom’s kind was special. She breathed into them so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life. This was her magic.”

As he got older, as with most children imagination fades and the need to fit in becomes paramount, especially with a bi-racial child. What used to make you unique and individual, are things that teenagers start to resent in themselves. Jack resented his mother’s foreignness, her language, her looks, her entire being.  He couldn’t see that he was just like her; and he couldn’t see that those things were his mothers only connection to her past and her culture. Rejecting them, meant that Jack was rejecting her. But children are sell-centered and sometimes it’s too late to see such things.

His mother died very young and made Jack promise that he would take out his collection of origami animals once a year on Qingming and think of her. When she died,  “The paper animals did not move. Perhaps whatever magic had animated them stopped when Mom died. Or perhaps I had only imagined that these paper constructions were once alive. The memory of children could not be trusted.”

On Qingming, the animals came alive, as did his connection to his mother and his Chinese heritage. This is a fantastic story, and although it has a tinge of fantasy elements, this is no niche work of fiction. It’s truly remarkable.

“The language that I had tried to forget for years came back, and I felt the words sinking into me, through my skin, through my bones, until they squeezed tight around my heart.”

Notable Passage: “Contempt felt good, like wine.”

Rating: 9-9-9-9 Total= 36

#227 Digging- Beth Lordan

#227 Digging- Beth Lordan

Repressed emotions, unrequited love, and digging in the plush green dirt, a trip to America to find a new hope, in Boston no less. What could be more Irish? This story is both tragic and touching, but like the Irish, always connected to the earth.

It begins with digging, an Irishman digging for something “ancient and splendid and connected to him.” That connection to the earth, to the rich past of the Irish runs a heavy thread throughout this story. Buried right under the surface, but still somehow undiscovered and out of reach. The tragedy of losing that connection, of forgetting or missing the stories of their, barely touching the grains of sand them as they slip through time. “No stories will be told tonight.”

History is solid and rugged like the earth, but our personal connection to it is delicate, especially during modern times as countrymen get scattered throughout the globe. The Irish migration to America is a perfect example of that. A generation removed from Ireland, two people might meet, and connect because of their shared lineage, but even if their pasts intertwine intimately, they might not know how. The beauty of that connection overshadowed by the tragedy of lost knowledge buried just beneath the surface.

I loved this story!

Notable Passage: “His only idea is to be out there, as far from the house as he can go without leaving his own bit of land, digging; what he wants is the heft and smell and slide of his own earth at his command. He doesn’t wonder if a man can own something like land; he owns this field and the dirt within it, and the field goes straight down to the center of the earth.”

Rating: 9-9-10-10 Total= 38

#102 Everyday Use- Alice Walker

#102 Everyday Use- Alice Walker

Change is a struggle. Dee is growing up, leaves home for college, and learns about self-worth, social change, and the oppression of her community. In her sudden evolution, she has a hard times grasping what and where her true heritage lies.

She is embarrassed of her family, her uneducated mother and timid sister living in the poor old part of town. She was happy when the old place burned down and couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  But she has found a bit of knowledge, hooked up with a righteous Muslim man, and despite changing her name, and donning new African clothing, has come back to grab some of her heritage. She takes a polaroid of the house to prove her humble upbringing, she fawns over the hand-made furniture her family made themselves, and she wants her mother to give her grandmother’s (the one she is named after) handmade quilts.

The fight over these quilts is the heart of her struggle. They have been promised to Maggie, her younger sister, but Dee is afraid that they will be ruined in her care because she will use them for everyday use. Of course they will, her mothers says and good thing too, because they haven’t been getting any use lately. Dee doesn’t want to use them, she wants to hang them in her house, to remember and display her heritage.

She warns her sister: “You ought to try to make something of yourself too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and mama still live you’d never know it.”

Change is a struggle, but not all change is good for all people. It’s good that Maggie wants to learn and be an evolved individual, but her desires are misplaced and her disrespect for her family and real upbringing is regretful. It’s a mistake made by many young people trying to strike out on their own. Mama is a rock, her patience and love are commendable. She tries to give enough room for growth while turning the other cheek…but the quilts are a step too far.

Notable Passage: “A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is an extended living room.”

Rating: 8-8-9-9 Total= 34