RaveAsymptotePoints of view alternate in Hwang’s brilliantly executed novella nesting story within story—each with the perfect amount of exposition topped with vivid specificity ... Hwang gives voice to the powerless. (In a stunning scene that must have scarred Black Shirt forever, a teenager protests his family’s forced eviction by charging headfirst into the still-swinging metal arms of an excavator that has come to demolish their home.) ... When the clicking into place of disparate narratives finally occurs—which it does all the more satisfyingly for being very late, the unassuming 29-year-old is exposed as the true agent of this novella. Even if she has to resort to catfishing Park, she is determined to play out Cha’s unfinished love story. By so doing, she materializes an audience for only one of the many neglected voices that have been swept under the rug of history.
