Bald New World

In the prologue of Bald New World by Peter Tieryas Liu, the thirty-six-year-old protagonist, Nicholas Guan, recalls that he woke up one day when he was eleven and found that his hair had inexplicably fallen out.  His parents are away, but he finds his older sister, Kelly, sobbing on the floor of the bathroom; she has also lost her hair, and he can't help but stare at her scalp, "an oddly-shaped oval with protrusions jutting out".  When Kelly runs out of the apartment, Nick follows and tries to find her.  He doesn't see his sister, but he discovers a startling new reality: everyone has lost their hair.

"Instead, a sea of bald people confronted me--everyone on the street had lost their hair. There was a frenzied madness in their eyes, confusion causing many of them to walk in a daze. "
~ Bald New World, Peter Tieryas Liu

No, this is not a bad dream.  This is beginning of Peter Tieras Liu's new, short dystopian novel, Bald New World, published in 2014.  Having read his collection of short stories, Watering Heaven (2012), I was eager to read his new book, even though it took me a long time to act on that eagerness.

"Hair is the most precious luxury in the world."
~ Bald New World, Peter Tieryas Liu

Like Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley,  Bald New World is also dystopian science fiction.  It's set in the future, after the Great Baldification.

"I don't want to blame everything bad that happened on the Great Baldification as it came to be known.  But it was the beginning of a lot of social change in the world."
~ Bald New World, Peter Tieryas Liu 

The changes include much higher divorce and unemployment rates, as well as constant warfare.  The main character, Nicholas, has survived an abusive, impoverished childhood, and is recovering from a divorce from Linda, the love of his life.  Nick is in the army, and works in the media department because of his passion for photography.  He also works as a cinematographer for his army friend, filmmaker Larry Chao (who's featured in some of the stories in the author's earlier work, Watering Heaven), who has inherited a wig factory from his father and is now super rich.

Nick considers Larry to be his best friend, his "family".  They live in a hairless world which is seething with danger, and life is sometimes a brutal battle for survival.  Nick struggles to know what's really going on; as a reader, I experienced some of that confusion and ambiguity as well.  As things went from bad to worse in the story, I wanted Nick to discover that he was just having a bad dream.

Bald New World is not for the faint of heart.  It's fast-paced, dizzying, unsettling, and violent at times.  It's  also humorous and clever.  Some of the characters are named after famous authors, such as Kafka, Beauvoir, Voltaire, and Austen.  Although dystopian fiction is not my usual reading choice, I found this book to be entertaining and exciting.  I was captivated by the ideas and events in this "bald new world", and I rooted for Nick's survival (I also liked good-natured Larry).

Warning:  Reading this book may entice you to grab your favorite bottles of shampoo and conditioner, head for the shower, and give thanks for the hair on your head.

Special thanks to Peter for sending me a copy of his new book to review.

Watering Heaven

"Anonymity was my secret identity.  I was lost in the sea of Beijing, a nonentity in the metaphor of a metropolis crammed with millions."
~The Buddha of Many Parts, Peter Tieryas Liu   


In The Buddha of Many Parts, the main characters, a man and a woman who meet by chance, are never named, and so they remain anonymous.  Both have their own reasons for living in Beijing, and seem to relish the freedoms that accompany anonymity in a very populous city.  Inspired by the story of the Buddha sculptor who sought to create physical perfection, the blond American woman living in Beijing focuses on the body parts of people, and having "fallen in love" with the man's fingers, wants to cast them in clay. 

Watering Heaven by Peter Tieryas Liu is a collection of twenty short stories, including The Buddha of Many Parts.  Published in 2012, the stories are set in various locations, mostly in Beijing, but also in other places including Bangkok and Los Angeles, and present numerous characters (some unnamed), in a variety of situations.  The stories that take place in China keenly depict Beijing and other locales, bringing them to life through descriptions of 'Worm Street', men playing xiangqi (Chinese chess), Changcheng (the Great Wall), assorted street vendors, kaoya (Peking Duck), and much more.

Dedicated to his wife, Angela, Watering Heaven features a lot of romance, which seems to be a refuge for the (young) protagonists, an escape from a world of detachment, superficiality, anxiety, and unpredictability.  In the first story,  Chronology of an Egg, the girl in the story, Sarah Chao, lays an egg every time she has sex.  This story is odd yet funny and compelling at the same time, a story that brings to mind the books of medical abnormalities I couldn't help but pore over, secretly, as a child.  Romance in a large city such as Beijing seems inevitable because of all the people out and about (perhaps it's  similar to NY in this way, where I grew up--romance was always handy); it offers some protection and diversion as well. These contemporary stories are set in present times and feature the technology of today, such as email and Facebook: how does modern technology affect romance?  In The Political Misconception of Getting Fired, the male protagonist, Byron Zhou, excitedly reconnects through Facebook with a girl he had a crush on in high school, June Guan, only to find out that they've both changed (he's no longer attracted to her).  This is a dauntless story for anyone who has ever wondered how a reunion through Facebook might turn out.

Other themes in this collection of stories have to do with jobs and working, and a hefty dose of job-related angst, failure, and dissatisfaction are in the mix, reminiscent of Kafka.  In some of the stories, characters are fleeing from jobs (and relationships) that are no longer satisfying.  In the story, Forbidden City Hoops, the main character, a collector of TV sets, is fleeing from his job as a photographer, which no longer seems fulfilling to him.  In another story, The Interview, the protagonist is let go from his current job for mistaking a masculine-looking female manager for a man.  An interview for a new job starts out very well--in fact, it's too good to be true.  Soon it becomes a dreadful nightmare when he's interrogated by a different manager and the questions become intensely personal; the entire encounter is extremely upsetting.  In the story 58 Deaths and Unrequited Love, filmmaker Larry Chao fails to achieve a successful career during his lifetime.  On the whole, the book stresses the importance of meaningful work and professional fulfillment, which are seen as worthwhile but difficult to achieve.  The author's edgy, exploratory voice and tone reflect more than a few unsettled feelings concerning jobs and working.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this collection of short fiction.  Each story is unique and imaginative, and not surprisingly, they've been featured in various literary publications and magazines, including Gargoyle, Indiana Review, Word Riot, and ZYZZYVA.  What I value most about these stories is their originality and inventiveness.  They seemed very creative and novel to me, strikingly different from anything else I've encountered in books. The format of the stories is also quite creative.  In the first story, Chronology of an Egg, the author gives dates and times of events within the story, as if he's writing a report.  Longer stories have numbered chapters, or at least sections within each story, while other stories, such as Colony, Unreflected, and The Death Artist, are very short (like longer flash fiction).

Peter Tieryas Liu's short fiction is fresh, distinct, and intelligent.  Watering Heaven presents situations that are sometimes surrealistic and often serious, but laced with humor and more than a bit of irony.  Although I just read these stories, I plan to reread at least some of them soon because they're so unusual, thought-provoking, and remarkable.

Special thanks to Peter Tieryas Liu for sending me a copy of Watering Heaven.  Your comments are welcome contributions to this review.

Mailbox Monday: Autumn edition

Ah, autumn!  So much to savor: the ravishing colors of leaves, the scents of simmering soup and cinnamon, the brightness of the days as they grow shorter.  In the evening I light some candles and want to change into my pajamas as early as possible and get lost in a book.  And I'm especially tempted by the books I've recently received in the mail.

I won Unending Devotion by Jody Hedlund and Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher on Renee's blog, Black 'n Gold Girl's Book Spot.  (I've already read--and enjoyed--Life with Lily; although this book is for children 8 and up, it was my my first taste of Amish fiction, and it's whetted my appetite for more.)   Watering Heaven is a collection of short fiction by writer Peter Tieryas Liu (which I hope to review before the end of this year), and Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney is for an upcoming TLC book tour.


Mailbox Monday, one of my favorite memes, is hosted by the Mailbox Monday blog this month. What books arrived in your mailbox recently, or from elsewhere?  Comments welcomed.

I hope everyone in the path of this monstrous storm stays safe!