Publishers Weekly - 27.01.2020

(Tina Sui) #1

100


FICTION
Mostly True
Arlene N. Cohen | Arlene N. Cohen
104 pages, trade paper, $15, ISBN 978-0-
9986877-8-0
Cohen’s nuanced debut collection
compiles 13 stories about people on
intimate quests. “The Livin’ Doll”
features an aging actress who
coaches a five-year-old girl to tell
her flattering things. Other older
protagonists seeking relationships
or dealing with the difficulties of life
are the mainstays of “Déjà Vu,”
“The Almond Cookie,” “Time Lapse,” and “Card on the Loose.”
The past comes to life in “Like Clara, the ‘It Girl,’ ” in which 1920s
flapper Clara drags her husband to Las Vegas to get away from
his controlling mother, and “The Free Spirit,” a story about a
woman’s search for happiness in the hippie counterculture of
1973 Maui. Hawaii is also the setting for several stories in which
women get vividly creative in their pursuit of better lives.
Cohen has crafted each story as a complete narrative, drawing
on her experience as a dancer to add elements of theatricality and
often centering the experiences of women who demand more
than life readily offers them. Many of the stories also feature
Jewish characters drawn with sympathy and humor. The plotting
is clear and concise, holding
the reader’s attention. Some
conclusions feel a little precipi-
tous, as in “The Free Spirit,” but
this doesn’t detract from the
overall quality of the narrative.
The character development
is thorough and introspective,
providing each character with
a backstory sufficient to
explain their motivation. In few
words, Cohen draws her
protagonists believably and
realistically explores everyday
events, such as Jane’s drug-
induced haze in “The High
Road” and Joe’s frustrations
with debit card fraud in “Card
on the Loose.” It’s a pleasure to
read along as these characters
trust their intuitions and seek
their joy.

FICTION
Perfect iSland
Sanjay Perera | Sanjay Perera
299 pages, e-book, $3.99, ASIN B07X2SW1M2
A political showdown quickly
veers into surreal supernatural horror
in this gore-tinged political satire.
Singapore’s cartoonishly corrupt
ruling party (known only as the Party)
signs a deal with Satanic forces to
zombify citizens through their smart-
phones. The Party plots to use the
screen-addicted “smombies” to
create “disturbance and tumult”
sufficient to cancel an upcoming general election. Toni, a member
of the fledgling opposition Justice Party, and her fiancé, Ben,
struggle to survive this conspiracy to turn Singapore into a dicta-
torship of cloned politicians backed by an evil corporation.
This uneven novel straddles comedy, horror, and suspense in
a way that neatly encapsulates the disorienting experience of
living under an authoritarian regime, but the genres aren’t fully
integrated. The gore will jar readers who are primarily invested
in Ben and Toni’s sweet, faltering relationship, while horror fans
will be less than enthralled by a lengthy scene of an undead Dr.
Caligari discussing economic
theory. More action-oriented
readers will be frustrated by the
frequent philosophical rumina-
tions on Singaporean history, an
unnecessary digression about
Ben’s Jewish heritage and
Caligari’s link to the Third
Reich, and complaints about
smartphones.
Perera has a skilled hand
with imagery—a smoker’s
ceiling is stained “as if spiders
had run into a vat of nicotine
and wriggled in a dance of
death”—but sometimes he
defaults to the obvious: “He
read the sign that welcomed all
visitors to Singapore. ‘Welcome
to Singapore’, it said...” His
moments of true eloquence
may keep readers going
through the detours that gradu-
ally subsume the central plot.

BookLife Reviews
BookLife Reviews are paid reviews of self-published books. Each review contains
the honest opinion of a professional Publishers Weekly reviewer. A lightning bolt ( )
indicates an Editor’s Pick, a book of outstanding quality.

BOOKLIFE, JANUARY 27, 2020

Any fan of short
literary fiction will
appreciate Cohen’s
collection of
thought-provoking,
richly drawn
narratives.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design & typography: B
Illustrations: –
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: B-

Production grades:
Cover: B
Design & typography: A-
Illustrations: –
Editing: B
Marketing copy: –

Readers familiar
with Singaporean
daily life and poli-
tics will get the
most from this
gore-splashed yet
philosophical satire.

PAID REVIEWS

Great for fans of
Tony Burgess’s
People Live Still in
Cashtown Corners,
Gretchen McNeil’s
#Murdertrending.

Great for fans of
Alice Munro’s
Runaway, Lauren
Groff’s Florida.
Free download pdf