jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review
3.0
This surrealist collection of short stories was a bit of a miss for me - some of the imagery I found inventive (particularly Sour Meat and The Mushroom Houses Proliferated in District M), but it didn’t leave a lasting impact on me. I also think it would have benefited from an editorial note as the collection together felt a little fragmented.
once_upon_a_tome's review
4.0
This book is part insanity, part mind teaser. My favorite story by far was definitely the last one and while a few of them still don’t quite make sense to me, I’m glad I stumbled across this book in my library and took a chance on it.
lmhess's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
duske's review
3.0
This collection of stories range from haunting to melancholy. I really liked the jab at society and living a "normal" life in "A Counterfeit Life", and I especially enjoyed "Flourishing Beasts" which really changes your perspective on how things are *really* like with the retreat of the narrator's view.
agent_solo's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
dreesreads's review
3.0
Some of these stories are solid 4-star stories. Most are fine. A couple are 2-stars.
My two favorites:
A Counterfeit Life by Chen Si'an: about a man who accidentally discovers he can make a good living by pretending to be the person others are waiting for it. It starts when he is mistaken for a late wedding MC. By loitering around different places and dressing in certain ways, he discovers people will often assume he is the person they are waiting for. He gets more daring and braver, and can pull of just about everything. And then he begins recruiting others that are down on their luck--just as he was--to do the same sort of thing.
Flourishing Beasts by Yan Ge: About a species of woman/tree, who live and are raised at The Temple of the Antiquities. They have human women there to help tend them, as the main character's mother did when she was a young woman.
————
Lip Service by Zhu Hui: there are quite a few sentences here that would fit right in on r/menwritingwomen
The Mushroom Houses Proliferated in District M by Enoch Tam: Interesting, but mushrooms are NOT plants (translation issue or from the original?). Mushrooms are fungi, and are actuaklly more closely related to humans than to plants. So, yeah.
My two favorites:
A Counterfeit Life by Chen Si'an: about a man who accidentally discovers he can make a good living by pretending to be the person others are waiting for it. It starts when he is mistaken for a late wedding MC. By loitering around different places and dressing in certain ways, he discovers people will often assume he is the person they are waiting for. He gets more daring and braver, and can pull of just about everything. And then he begins recruiting others that are down on their luck--just as he was--to do the same sort of thing.
Flourishing Beasts by Yan Ge: About a species of woman/tree, who live and are raised at The Temple of the Antiquities. They have human women there to help tend them, as the main character's mother did when she was a young woman.
————
Lip Service by Zhu Hui: there are quite a few sentences here that would fit right in on r/menwritingwomen
The Mushroom Houses Proliferated in District M by Enoch Tam: Interesting, but mushrooms are NOT plants (translation issue or from the original?). Mushrooms are fungi, and are actuaklly more closely related to humans than to plants. So, yeah.
drewsof's review
5.0
It's always neat to be exposed to new cultures in translation and this is no exception. Calico, the new series from Two Lines, is off to an amazing start with THAT WE MAY LIVE -- a strange spin on temp work, stories of a city where its alphabetical districts have strange features like mushroom houses, an eerie fermented beverage that gives new meaning to "with the Mother", and more. I didn't love every story and found a few translation moments to be clunky, but on the whole this is a killer start to what will hopefully be a must-read series from Two Lines.
speculativebecky's review
4.0
That We May Live IS a collection of Chinese speculative fiction in translation from Two Lines Press’ new Calico Series. It features seven short stories by six contemporary Chinese writers. Normally I’d share the name of the editor but here no editors’ names are specified anywhere in the book. Aren’t anthologies meant to have a preface or afterword? Without anything except the stories themselves and short bios of the authors and translators, this collection feels a bit adrift, with no context for its existence.
That aside, I did enjoy reading this collection. The stories were varied in how much they appealed to me, but since it's an anthology collecting work from multiple authors I was always excited to read the next one. This book is also immaculately constructed, for those aesthetically-minded among you, the bright orange title pages for each of the stories are beautiful, and I loved how they incorporate the title, author, translator, and a quote from each story.
These stories are not speculative in a straightforward SFF sense, they are surreal tales that often left me unsure about the takeaway, yet more often than not emotionally impacted. I feel these stories certainly speak to a cultural context that I’m unfamiliar with, and likely operate on a metaphorical level to which I’m missing the references. (Another reason I would have appreciated some commentary from an editor or the translators.) It stands alone fairly successfully nonetheless, and I’m so glad I picked up this collection to get these strange and fascinating tastes of the included authors’ writing.
My favorite stories were the first and last. Sour Meat by Dorothea Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce is one of the most unsettling stories I’ve read in a while, reminding me of Carmen Maria Machado or Samanta Schweblin. Flourishing Beasts by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang, is a delicate and intriguing tale about these beings who grow from the earth like saplings and are cut down to be carved into beautiful furniture. I am excited after these introductions to seek out more of these two authors' work especially.
That aside, I did enjoy reading this collection. The stories were varied in how much they appealed to me, but since it's an anthology collecting work from multiple authors I was always excited to read the next one. This book is also immaculately constructed, for those aesthetically-minded among you, the bright orange title pages for each of the stories are beautiful, and I loved how they incorporate the title, author, translator, and a quote from each story.
These stories are not speculative in a straightforward SFF sense, they are surreal tales that often left me unsure about the takeaway, yet more often than not emotionally impacted. I feel these stories certainly speak to a cultural context that I’m unfamiliar with, and likely operate on a metaphorical level to which I’m missing the references. (Another reason I would have appreciated some commentary from an editor or the translators.) It stands alone fairly successfully nonetheless, and I’m so glad I picked up this collection to get these strange and fascinating tastes of the included authors’ writing.
My favorite stories were the first and last. Sour Meat by Dorothea Tse, translated by Natascha Bruce is one of the most unsettling stories I’ve read in a while, reminding me of Carmen Maria Machado or Samanta Schweblin. Flourishing Beasts by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang, is a delicate and intriguing tale about these beings who grow from the earth like saplings and are cut down to be carved into beautiful furniture. I am excited after these introductions to seek out more of these two authors' work especially.