Transparency by Frances Hwang

bigWOWO Rating: Asian American Gold

Transparency is a collection of short stories written by Frances Hwang. I picked it up at the suggestion of Akrypti, who said that she loved Frances Hwang.

The short stories contained within the book often deal with immigrant issues and questions of acculturation. Many of the characters do not fit within the society in which they live, and the stories deal with their attempts to make sense of who they are. There is the mother dealing with an older Taiwanese father in the the short story The Old Gentleman, the man dealing with his lost voice in Transparency, and the woman dealing with psychological displacement in Intruders. All of Hwang’s characters seem somewhat off-center, and the narratives describe their attempt to make sense of the world.

There was a lot to like about this collection. Frances Hwang is a gifted storyteller, and her rhythm, delivery, and choice of words kept the pages turning. Her writing style inspires me. The book also had a Reading Group Guide at the end. I loved what Hwang says about studying writing with a community:

“As a writer, you face rejection at every turn, and what’s worse, people often regard you as naive, lazy, and unfortunate.”

I laughed so hard when I read this. I was thinking about the Talent post, and I realized that if I don’t get this novel finished in five years, to the rest of the world, it will be as if I just shut myself in a room for five years and did nothing. People see writers as lazy, naive, unfortunate, and maybe even stupid. What people don’t understand is that novels take time. They really do. I’ve written about 50,000 words so far, but with all the writing and rewriting, I only have about 25,000.

Hwang also talks about how studying at Montana helped her to read more contemporary fiction and to “come down from the ether.” She says her favorite writers are Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Alice Munro. Notice that Hwang’s literary heroes are all White. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but I do think it shows in the way her stories treat the concept of race. Hwang’s thinking on race is post-racial. People have a race but are not much affected by it. In the story Blue Hour, for example, there’s a story of two Asian women dating two White guys, but the only mention of race is when the main character talks about being mistaken as her friend’s sister by people who think Asians look alike. It was a bit frustrating at times to read this post-racial racialism, since most Asian Americans I know have a much more profound relationship with the racial hierarchy in America. That being said, most of the protagonists in these works are Asian American women or older Asian American men, and I can see how it is entirely possible to be part of either of these two groups without being affected by race. It’s an entirely believable world. Young Asian women have a complex relationship with acceptance/non-acceptance, and old Asian dudes have other things to worry about besides racial injustice or disparities.

I thought this book pushed the envelope on style and existence. It didn’t push the envelope much on deeper racial and ethnic questions, but it still contributed to the dialogue that we need to build. I enjoyed it.

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