In Bluebeard’s First Wife, Ha explores big cities and small rural towns where ambition, familial responsibilities, and expectations of marriage coalesce to reveal hidden sides to neighbors, wives, and husbands. The ordinary lives of middle class peoples in such cities and towns gain fairy-tale quality as Janet Hong’s translation renders Ha’s uneasy stories with haunting details and precise prose.
Unsettling Glimpses into Other Worlds: Review of Mannequin & Wife by Jen Fawkes
The collection undertakes—with some success—the difficult job of creating stories that delight while carrying unsettling premises and undertones.
