“Long ago, someone told me that I really shouldn’t get attached to humans. Nothing good comes of it since they detest our kind and kill us when they can. Yet I’ve always found it hard to leave.” – Yangsze Choo, ‘The Fox Wife’
I did a book exchange this week! I don’t loan out books much because I am both bad at keeping track of what I loan out and bad at getting books back to people.
Recently, though, the homie—literally, we live in the same building—Allie was over the other day and asking about books. We were talking about our shared love for putting fairy tales and folklore in modern/contemporary stories. She asked for a book. I gave her Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. She gave me, well—
(hey real quick: Quin, if you’re reading this and you want Newcomer Can’t Swim by Renee Gladman back, lmk)
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
A book where foxes take human form. A book that reminded me of Isabel Cañas (complimentary), with its careful attention to historical detail. A book with a detective subplot and plenty of travel, which vaguely reminded me of Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase. I’m talking, of course, about The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo.
We follow two narrators: Snow, a fox in human form, and Bao, a private detective in his early-to-mid-sixties. Snow is on a quest for vengeance after her child was killed. Bao is trying to identify a dead body for a client—but come on, you know how detective stories go. That case is more or less solved by the end of act one, but Bao’s role in the story is far from over. This ties both of them to an aging matriarch who has her own history with foxes. The tale winds through China and Japan, is full of historical asides and mythology, and eventually, love and a rich guy’s house burning down.
Categories are boring, but I think sometimes useful to discuss: I’m not sure if I’d call this book “magical realism,” simply because with magical realism, there’s always an empirical explanation for what’s going on. Nor is this book a fantasy, with thorough world-building. This is more of a true fairy tale mashed into modern/contemporary storytelling, sort of like Victor LaValle did with The Changeling. The book takes pains to explain a lot—characters’ backstories, Chinese history—but never really explains the full extent of a fox/human shapeshifter’s magic. Nor do characters have to do much work justifying their belief in these supernatural entities, though there is plenty of “certainly I’m not talking to a fox right now” hedging. One of the links below has further exploration on the joys of reading fairy tales and their drop-you-right-in approach to magic. I certainly enjoyed this one.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? How about Simon Macias II covering “Rosewood” by Chon on nylon string?
- A funny/depressing thing happened this week. The Chicago Sun-Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and other papers published a huge section of pure AI slop for a summer reading list. I mean, a huge list of books that do not and will never exist, attached to real actual author names. It’s deeply embarrassing for any paper that ran it, and a deeply depressing snapshot of the state of journalism. Jason Koebler at 404 Media talked to Marco Buscaglia, the freelancer working for the Hearst-owned content farm who “forgot to check” whatever ChatGPT spit out (of course, so did all the papers). Albert Burneko has a writeup at Defector, and Diana Moskovitz has a zoomed-out view of AI journalism. Maris Kreizman has righteous indignation from the book reviewer crowd. Look, obviously this is gross. And I will say, as a working freelancer who operates on tight deadlines and doesn’t get paid enough, that yes—sometimes embarrassing slip-ups happen. I am super grateful that the company who owns The Daily Meal has stringent editorial practices and a hardline, no-AI policy. Since I am a real writer, though, unlike lil Marco Buscaglia, since I am writer who does the fucking work, I don’t have to worry about unedited ChatGPT bullshit being published under my name. Marco’s writing career is over, which is fine. Good riddance to a scab. Sun-Times, you coulda paid me—a guy who has reviewed books for journals, written book lists for Mental Floss, and has a weekly book rec blog—you coulda paid me $300.
- Okay, every other link is going to be something really cool I read this week about writing. Here’s Lincoln Michel on “the weird and surreal magic of old fairy tales” while talking about a new book of previously undiscovered old fairy tales. If you do pick up The Fox Wife, or any Aimee Bender or Kelly Link, or The Changeling, read this blog.
- Volume 1 of José Olivarez’s “Read Like A Poet” series is up, and it rules.
- Some encouragement to write today, from Gabino Iglesias.
- A bunch of prompts from Kathy Fish (plus encouragement to submit your stories places).
What’re you still doing here? Don’t you know Micah and Brendan have a show?
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Be wary of anyone who is too pretty or charming—they might be a fox. Be wary of anyone who is the exact opposite—they might be an AI hologram.
Sorry you will eventually get an email,
Chris