Tag Archives: Transparency

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.