Read This Book…

When I first read Ling Ma’s Severance, I was mesmerized. It follows the story of a woman working the daily grind of a publishing job with no end in sight when an illness breaks out in China, eventually spreading to the US. Little did I know that just a couple of years later, real life would echo that story. Just last year, Ma published Bliss Montage, a collection containing eight short stories. Each piece is surreal, unique, and disturbing, all in the best ways.

In “Office Hours,” a college student is invited by her professor to start taking naps on his couch. As her professor sits and grades at her desk, she luxuriates in this time on his couch. She’s full of mixed feelings, unsure of exactly what her time with her professor means. In “Los Angeles,” a woman lives with her husband and a host of her ex-boyfriends, all on the same property. But as time passes, her ex-boyfriends begin to leave, making her far more depressed than she realizes.

But my favorite story is “Returning,” the story of a woman married to a man from a fictional country. As their marriage slowly falls apart, our protagonist is stuck in her seat while her husband quickly exits the plane with all of her belongings, including her passport. When she finally gets off the plane, she realizes her husband has entered the country without her, leaving her stranded in the airport. In flashbacks, we see the history of their relationship, messy and relatable in all of its complexity.

Ma’s stories each have this surreal, fantastical quality to them. You’ll be reading a story that feels based in realism, and then she introduces something close to magical or otherworldly. And she ends her stories with the kind of ambiguity that makes you long for more.