Fish in Exile
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
Praise for Vi Khi Nao: "Here I was allowed to forget for a while that that is what books aspire to tell, so taken was I by more enthralling and mysterious pleasures." —Carole Maso How do you bear the death of a child? With fishtanks and jellyfish burials, Persephone's pomegranate seeds, and affairs with the neighbors. Fish in Exile spins unimaginable loss through classical and magical tumblers, distorting our view so that we can see the contours of a parent's grief all the more clearly. Vi Khi Nao was born in Long Khanh, Vietnam. Vi's work includes poetry, fiction, film and cross-genre collaboration. Her poetry collection, The Old Philosopher, was the winner of 2014 Nightboat Poetry Prize. Her novel, Fish In Exile, will make its first appearance in Fall 2016 from Coffee House Press. She holds an MFA in fiction from Brown University.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.75 - I don't really know what to say about this one. I liked a lot of it, but it was hard to get through because I didn't want to read it anymore but also didn't want to DNF. I don't know. It was just exhausting and I struggled. Maybe it to Nao's credit that the emotional strain of their marriage was palpable enough to convince me to never get married or have children, but I don't really think that was the point. I admired her exploration of grief in this absurd, bizarro way (half the book is filled with them “walking their fish” or trying to empty out the ocean) and I loved the writing style but anytime the husband and wife (Ethos and Catholic) interacted, I became more frustrated with Catholic's behaviour towards her husband than immersed in the picture of their grief. I became so annoyed with her over 75 pages that by the time the narrative switched to her POV I didn't want to read anything she said. People that deal with their pain by hurting everyone around them will never not frustrate me. Especially when they hurt the one person carrying the pain with them.
