Staff Pick
May-Lan Tan's stories are meant to be absorbed in a sensory way more than they are meant to be understood in a traditional linear fashion. They're full of smells, sounds, tastes, and the kinds of human interactions that clang against each other and gives you a nervous knot in your stomach. The stories, "Legendary," "DD-MM-YY," "Transformer," and "Would Like to Meet," are all stunning highlights in this collection by one of my favorite contemporary writers. Recommended By Kevin S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Old relationships, past selves, hopes for the future--third parties are always in play in any love story. In ten short stories, May-Lan Tan unspools worlds within worlds, the possibilities we seek out again and again, and the seemingly endless churn through self-invention and self-annhilation that is our search for connection. Sleeping with your sister's husband's brother, betraying bandmates, contriving to strike up a friendship with your boyfriend's ex--Tan makes visible how all our dead ends are really mirrors, proxies for something else, and reflections that keep us from seeing our way forward.
Synopsis
"There's plenty of darkness and a sprinkling of magic, and these strange, flinty, cigarette-stained narratives speed by, offering lots of surface tension and compel- ling deeper passions." --James Smart, The Guardian
"Tan is a cinematic w riter in the same way some directors are literary--think David Lynch at his most Guignol." --David Collard, The Times Literary Supplement
"The thirteen stories found in these two books are a fantastic introduction to a writer in the process of teaching us new ways of reading." --Tobias Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn
"
Things to Make and Break is omnisexual, and it's mind-blowingly good." --Christopher Allen,
PANKOld relationships, past selves, hopes for the future-third parties are always in play in any love story. In ten short stories, May-Lan Tan unspools worlds within worlds, the possibilities we seek out again and again, and the seemingly endless churn through self-invention and self-annihilation that is our search for connection. Sleeping with your sister's husband's brother, betraying bandmates, contriving to strike up a friendship with your boyfriend's ex-Tan makes visible how all our dead ends are really mirrors, proxies for something else, and reflections that keep us from seeing our way forward.
May-Lan Tan studied fine art at Goldsmiths and works as a ghostwriter. Her stories have appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Atlas Review, the Reader, and Aret . She lives in Berlin.