PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksHere, Zink has found a premise that allows her to explore the issues around race by turning one trope after another inside out. This is also a way in which Mislaid engages with American fiction’s long tradition of looking at race through satire...Here is a white woman satirizing her own ridiculous species ... Mislaid is not just a backwards route to examining oppression, it is a straightforward route to an examination of shelter, in the literal and the metaphorical sense .. Zink can be cruel and punishing to all her characters, but she always grants them a way out ... Mislaid isn’t a perfect novel, but that is partly because it isn’t really a novel. In an interview, Zink said that she structured it according to a \'Viennese operetta.\' This makes sense — the book is episodic, dialogue-heavy, and its ending recalls Elizabethan comedies...It is also, frankly, a little bit exhausting keeping up with the constant jokes and the density of the text. It’s sharp and fun but it’s also demanding. It can be similar to the exhaustion of spending time with a very smart and very funny friend, who is often one step ahead of you. You’re a little confused, a little disoriented but the experience, overall, can be exhilarating. It’s also a little stressful. How are you ever going to keep this person only to yourself?
