As a copy editing note, the word "trawl" was used, perhaps in reference to a small shovel? This usage is unorthodox from the context I thought the word was meant to be "trowel". I would have rated this collection higher, if it had concentrated on its strengths, instead of being diluted. In this collection, one can easily see that Huang is a talented, gifted writer, but there is also too much drafty material to wade through. After reading Pineola Inn, I was reminded of the old editing truism spouted by poets - "if you have a good line take it out" (because it just overshadows the rest of the mediocre lines).
These two strong stories were also grounded in social realism, and it was jarring to then read a story about a headless mother (or more accurately, try to read a story about a headless mother, and then just not bother). Philip Huang meets with Marc Kate for the 25th episode of Why We Listen to listen to and discuss: 'Hot Summer Nights Silent Night by jeremimi Looking For A City Philip Huang is a performer and artist from Berkeley, California, the author of A Pornography of Grief and the founder of the Home Theater Festival. The best stories here, such as "Pineola Inn" and "American Widow", are undermined by other short, weak pieces which are more like sketches or undeveloped vignettes.
Twelve strong stories is a better collection that a mixed bag of 18 pieces. I always think less is more, when it comes to collections. A Pornography of Grief by Philip Huang available in Trade Paperback on, also read synopsis and reviews. Maybe if I had read this volume after reading a couple of crappy books I would have liked it more. This is the beauty, this is the pathology, this is the pornography of grief.This book had the misfortune to be read following a brilliant novel and a stellar short fiction collection. These are the stories of the ones who have survived. These are the stories of the walking wounded. Like a good sad album, this book opens up wounds, probes the sorrows and strange lives of its characters, and finds transcendence in unexpected places. One finds profound sympathy, a black sense of humor, and an icy sort of justice in these stories. The past and the present blur together in ways that only people living at the periphery of reason understand. The author of a self-help book comes to terms with how little help she has ever really had. A bride who has survived her own decapitation keeps losing her head at her own wedding. A woman lives with a band of fellow survivors in a ratty hotel, all keeping intoxicated watch over comatose loved ones. Huang understands how powerfully we are drawn to these things, even as we publicly turn away from them and confine them to the safe spaces behind closed doors. In this affecting, harrowing, and darkly hilarious debut collection, Philip Huang explores the topics that compel us and terrify us: sex, grief, and death.
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