Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.
Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.
So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?
A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.
Born in Sanming, China, Ling grew up in Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas. She holds an MFA from Cornell University, where she also taught. Currently, she serve as an assistant professor at her alma mater, University of Chicago.
原文摘录
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Making plans heartened us, and as we stayed up late, drinking, we theorized grandly. What is the internet but collective memory? Anything that had been done before we could do better. The Heimlich maneuver. Breech births. The fox-trot. Glycerin bombs. Bespoke candle making. Lurking in our limited gene pools may swim metastatic brain tumors and every type of depression and recessed cystic fibrosis, but also high IQs and proficiencies with Romance languages. We could move on from this. We could be better. (查看原文)
at last it was chicago. it's calling to me in its own apocalyptic way. a carnival of disaffection, mourning in decadence, ghosting in style. the end was already always here, flattened into an endless ...at last it was chicago. it's calling to me in its own apocalyptic way. a carnival of disaffection, mourning in decadence, ghosting in style. the end was already always here, flattened into an endless plane of surface gestures like the rest of time itself. the mall, like the one in Dawn of the Dead, the first and last refuge in our modern fable.(展开)
The world is a mall. 原本以为是the story of animal laboran, 后来发现也不尽然,更像是置放在资本主义中的「人是习惯的动物」的故事。和COVID-19及SARS挺不一样的,书中Shen-fever时期人人的恐慌倒并不明显。「回忆」甚至是「乡愁/怀旧」与病毒免疫及感染有着微妙的关联,使得这些主题在这本涉及移民题材的小说里没有完全落入俗套。对女性的体验和视...The world is a mall. 原本以为是the story of animal laboran, 后来发现也不尽然,更像是置放在资本主义中的「人是习惯的动物」的故事。和COVID-19及SARS挺不一样的,书中Shen-fever时期人人的恐慌倒并不明显。「回忆」甚至是「乡愁/怀旧」与病毒免疫及感染有着微妙的关联,使得这些主题在这本涉及移民题材的小说里没有完全落入俗套。对女性的体验和视角有了更细致的刻画,有「为母则刚」的影子。双叙事线并行得干净利落,是轻松的page-turner。部分情节的设定和想象还是有些匮乏了。(展开)
Eerie reading in 2020. Compelling narrative structure weaving pre- and post-apocalypse timelines, figuring out what happened at the End, plus an escape story. A nuanced critique of capitalism & consum...Eerie reading in 2020. Compelling narrative structure weaving pre- and post-apocalypse timelines, figuring out what happened at the End, plus an escape story. A nuanced critique of capitalism & consumerism from a second-gen persepctive (mom's yearning for work v millennial ennui), a parallel story of severance from the homeland and need to belong(展开)
Oh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I said, locating one stack of board books. Yes, very popular, he affirmed. We do so many reprints. As we turned to leave, he asked: Why is it so popular in America?Pactice counting all the apples that the caterpillar eats.Th...
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2 有用 开花店的诗隽熙 2022-01-01 00:11:36
at last it was chicago. it's calling to me in its own apocalyptic way. a carnival of disaffection, mourning in decadence, ghosting in style. the end was already always here, flattened into an endless ... at last it was chicago. it's calling to me in its own apocalyptic way. a carnival of disaffection, mourning in decadence, ghosting in style. the end was already always here, flattened into an endless plane of surface gestures like the rest of time itself. the mall, like the one in Dawn of the Dead, the first and last refuge in our modern fable. (展开)
13 有用 值得表扬 2018-09-12 22:03:19
四星送给本书带来的四股近期Asian American文学的清流:一星给first-gen immigrant experience,二星给末日主题,三星给一颗不矫情的平常心,四星给为母则刚的世纪觉醒
6 有用 Wald 2020-06-11 09:38:34
The world is a mall. 原本以为是the story of animal laboran, 后来发现也不尽然,更像是置放在资本主义中的「人是习惯的动物」的故事。和COVID-19及SARS挺不一样的,书中Shen-fever时期人人的恐慌倒并不明显。「回忆」甚至是「乡愁/怀旧」与病毒免疫及感染有着微妙的关联,使得这些主题在这本涉及移民题材的小说里没有完全落入俗套。对女性的体验和视... The world is a mall. 原本以为是the story of animal laboran, 后来发现也不尽然,更像是置放在资本主义中的「人是习惯的动物」的故事。和COVID-19及SARS挺不一样的,书中Shen-fever时期人人的恐慌倒并不明显。「回忆」甚至是「乡愁/怀旧」与病毒免疫及感染有着微妙的关联,使得这些主题在这本涉及移民题材的小说里没有完全落入俗套。对女性的体验和视角有了更细致的刻画,有「为母则刚」的影子。双叙事线并行得干净利落,是轻松的page-turner。部分情节的设定和想象还是有些匮乏了。 (展开)
1 有用 弯弯 2020-04-07 12:36:03
Eerie reading in 2020. Compelling narrative structure weaving pre- and post-apocalypse timelines, figuring out what happened at the End, plus an escape story. A nuanced critique of capitalism & consum... Eerie reading in 2020. Compelling narrative structure weaving pre- and post-apocalypse timelines, figuring out what happened at the End, plus an escape story. A nuanced critique of capitalism & consumerism from a second-gen persepctive (mom's yearning for work v millennial ennui), a parallel story of severance from the homeland and need to belong (展开)
2 有用 Decem 穿窗皓月 2024-03-11 06:23:53 美国
感觉我读过最符合我身边的都市女性精神状态和世界观的书,感觉核心词就是sectioning:1. routine的工作分化而成的生活,对于capitalist系统的navigation而不是反抗,还有一种”还能怎样呢?“的心情(感觉女主对男友Jonathan说的那段话就很符合我和我身边人的工作态度:我们需要钱,需要医保需要现代的很多,我们跳出这个routine的话也不是狂野而是贫穷,而贫穷也不自由)... 感觉我读过最符合我身边的都市女性精神状态和世界观的书,感觉核心词就是sectioning:1. routine的工作分化而成的生活,对于capitalist系统的navigation而不是反抗,还有一种”还能怎样呢?“的心情(感觉女主对男友Jonathan说的那段话就很符合我和我身边人的工作态度:我们需要钱,需要医保需要现代的很多,我们跳出这个routine的话也不是狂野而是贫穷,而贫穷也不自由)2. 世界强势弱势国家和阶级的分化和层层的剥削之环:女主的工作就是把更加贫穷和危险的工作外包给中国 3. 人与人之间的分化:就是这种”还能怎样呢“的间歇性麻木,对于这个压榨人的系统和对自己在这个系统的作用的麻木,选择性不看到别人...这些都市部分写的真的好,但是末日部分就又落入cult俗套 (展开)