Bliss Montage

"It is in the most surreal situations that a person feels the most present, the closest to reality."

3.5✩/5★

This was my first dive into Ling Ma's work, and while I found her ideas and stories intriguing, her writing style left me with mixed feelings.

Don't get me wrong, I personally think Ma has a unique narrative style, jumping between timelines and fragmented moments, which reminds me of Christopher Nolan's experimentation with time in films. This could be captivating in a novel, but in short stories, it often felt disorienting. Stories like "Yeti Lovemaking," have this the constant jumps of thoughts resulted in a scattered, unfinished feel that I don't really like. At the end of every story, I kept finding myself asking "What did I just read?". However, there were still also some well-written pieces like "Orange," "G," and "Returning," that Ma played around with her ideas pretty neatly.

Despite the inconsistency, I think I had a great time reading this collection. Still, I personally feel like her narrative style might be better suited for longer formats like novels, where the non-linear structure has more space to breathe. Overall, while not every story in "Bliss Montage" landed, the collection's intriguing ideas make me curious to see what Ma does next.