Synopses & Reviews
In What Isn't There, Jocelyn Lieu has crafted her own interpretations, almost parables, as a result of the catastrophe inside my imagination that followed 9/11. Her shrapnel of narratives explore the unforeseen consequences of that warm September day, when an act of unprecedented violence collided with her day-to-day life as a mother and a writer. Although Lieu did not loose a family member or friend in the twin towers, What Isn't There achieves the rare feat of articulating the communal grief that was felt in the wake of 9/11--not only in New York City--but throughout the country and world. By telling her experience--the story of a woman who lived near the land now called ground zero--Lieu rescues that day from symbolism, and restores the event back in the realm of lived experience where it belongs.
Synopsis
What Isn't There is Jocelyn Lieu's own interpretation of what 9/11 meant to her and to New York City. It presents her kaleidoscope of memories of the unforeseen consequences of September 11, when an unprecedented act of violence collided with her day to day life as a mother and a writer. This retelling of the experience of a woman who lived near Ground Zero restores the event back in the realm of lived experience where it belongs.
About the Author
Born a bi-racial Chinese-American in New York, Jocelyn was educated at Yale. She has taught writing and Asian American literature at Purdue, Butler, and Long Island universities and is currently is on the liberal studies faculty of Parsons School of Design/New School University. Her fiction has appeared in the Penguin USA anthology of contemporary Asian-American fiction entitled CHARLIE CHAN IS DEAD. The Children was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and This World, which appeared in the Penguin anthology was singled it out for praise in the New York Times Book Review.