PositiveNew York Times Book ReviewPropulsive ... Some of the narrator’s many digressions occasionally bog down the story, and some of her concerns are broader than what the novel can successfully tackle, leaving larger points on gender and class underdeveloped. But this self-conscious narration also allows the story to shape-shift and traverse multiple forms and genres, from neighborhood gossip and police reports to the detective novel and the family saga. The result is an insightful and sprawling book, clever enough to turn its formal contradictions into a strength ... Heather Cleary’s translation from the Spanish has the wit and charm of the original, and deftly adds some glosses where context is needed ... In a story that is conscious of its own telling, Cleary seizes the opportunity to add yet another metafictional layer, to great effect ... The novel’s third act adds one final and surprising layer that reveals the true depth of its ambition ... The kind of story only an embodied fictional narrator could tell.
Ling Ma
RaveAstra MagThe strangeness of living in a body is exposed, the absurdity of carrying race and gender on one’s face, all against the backdrop of an America in ruin ... Ma’s meticulously-crafted mood and characterization ... Ma’s gift for endings is evident ... Ma masterfully captures her characters’ double consciousness, always seeing themselves through the white gaze, in stunning and bold new ways ... Even the weaker stories in the book...are redeemed by Ma’s restrained prose style, dry humor, and clever gut-punch endings. But all this technical prowess doesn’t mean the collection lacks a heart. First- and second-generation Americans who might have been invisible for most of their lives are seen and held lovingly in Ma’s fiction.
