RaveAsian Review of Books... carefully crafted portraits of women’s relationships and intimacies formed and dissolved over time ... the loneliness of immigrants is sharply rendered ... brimming with love and longing ... Rather than being gratuitous, reference to...political events serve to demonstrate how intimate relationships are interrupted, or transmuted beyond repair, by these larger events. Brilliantly conceived, the stories in Shoko’s Smile are emotionally raw and true to life: a compilation of a writer who has not only devoted time to the development of the craft, but who has invested in the deep observation of character. The resulting emotional portraiture is both extraordinary and moving.
