Fuelled by Jenny Zhang's singular voice and sly humour, Sour Heart introduces a bright new force in literary fiction. From the young woman coming to terms with her grandmother's role in the Cultural Revolution, to the daughter struggling to understand where her family ends and she begins, to the girl discovering the power of her body to inspire and destroy, these vibrant, raw and powerful stories illuminate the complex and messy inner lives of girls struggling to define themselves. Centred on a community of immigrants who have traded their endangered lives as artists in China and Taiwan for the constant struggle of life on the poverty line in 1990s New York City, the stories that make up Sour Heart examine the many ways that family and history can weigh us down, but also lift us up. I was stunned, moved and – quite frankly – a little jealous' Lena Dunham 'Bold, startling brilliance' Miranda July These seven startling stories of family, femininity, sexuality and otherness will plunge you into the tender and chaotic hearts of narrators you won't easily forget.
A darkly funny and intimate rendering of girlhood, Sour Heart examines what it means to belong to a family and to find your home, leave it, reject it, and return again.'I will never forget the first time I read Jenny Zhang.
Narrated by the daughters of Chinese immigrants who fled imperiled lives as artists back home only to struggle to stay afloat - Dumpster diving for food and scamming Atlantic City casino buses to make a buck - these seven stories showcase Zhang's compassion, moral courage, and a perverse sense of humor reminiscent of Portnoy's Complaint. In the absence of grown-ups, latchkey kids experiment on each other until one day the experiments turn violent an overbearing mother abandons her artistic aspirations to come to America but relives her glory days through karaoke and a shy loner struggles to master English so she can speak to God. Her stories cut across generations and continents, moving from the fraught halls of a public school in Flushing, Queens, to the tumultuous streets of Shanghai, China, during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. In this debut collection, she conjures the disturbing and often hilarious experience of adolescence through the eyes of Chinese American girls growing up in New York City. A sly debut story collection that conjures the experience of adolescence through the eyes of Chinese American girls growing up in New York City - for listeners of Zadie Smith, Helen Oyeyemi, and Junot Díaz.Ī fresh new voice emerges with the arrival of Sour Heart, establishing Jenny Zhang as a frank and subversive interpreter of the immigrant experience in America. A fresh new voice emerges with the arrival of Sour Heart, establishing Jenny Zhang as a frank and subversive interpreter of the immigrant experience in America.
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