Liu, Ken: The Paper Menagerie
The Paper Menagerie (2011)
Written by: Ken Liu
Genre: Short Story/Magical Realism
Published by: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Rating: Excellent
I read this the same day as John Scalzi's Hugo-nominated short, and this one stopped me in my tracks. I have a fondness for magical realism, and this one really got to me. From the start, with the origami tiger coming to life? You bet I was sold.
But as with most magical realism (at least with the small amount of stuff that I've read), there's really more to the story than the magic itself, though the magic is utterly charming. No, the story is about a boy who's half American, half Chinese, and it's the half-Chinese part of his heritage that gives him fits as he gets older. Notably, it's his mother.
What kind of woman puts herself into a catalog so that she can be bought? The high school me thought I knew so much about everything. Contempt felt good, like wine.
Jack is a narrator I related to in a weird way. I certainly understand the shame one can feel for a parent, though Jack's situation is heightened by his own unique search for identity and his unique need to fit in. The need to be normal. All of this complicated because he has a mother who speaks very little English and holds on to her culture like a lifeline, despite living in America and having an American husband. It's a sad story, as Jack grows and decides he's too old for his toys, the paper menagerie of origami animals, all of which live by the breath of life, and as such, he decides he's too old for his mother. The turning point happens when Jack shows a friend, Mark, his toys after Mark is so proud of his Obi-Wan action figure. As you can imagine, it doesn't go well, and the little scene is heart-breaking on a host of levels. Jack pulls and pulls away from her, until:
Mom finally stopped making the animals when I was in high school. By then her English was much better, but I was already at that age when I wasn’t interested in what she had to say whatever language she used.
Sometimes, when I came home and saw her tiny body busily moving about in the kitchen, singing a song in Chinese to herself, it was hard for me to believe that she gave birth to me. We had nothing in common. She might as well be from the Moon. I would hurry on to my room, where I could continue my all-American pursuit of happiness.
The end of the story had me choked up while reading. It's a beautiful piece, packed tight with emotion that's accentuated by the magical realism of the piece. Again, I don't know yet what I'm voting for, because as of now, I've only read two of the five short story pieces, but this piece really got to me in a great way. Whether or not you're voting for the Hugo, I highly recommend clicking the first link in the review and giving this story a shot. I know I'm looking forward to reading more of Liu's work, which I'll get to soon, since he also has a novella nominated this year. :)