Maxwell Suzuki
  • Home
  • Writing / Visual Art
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Reviews

Review of When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

2/4/2022

0 Comments

 
When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen is a collection of poems centering around what it means to be Chinese American, gay, and grappling with parents that do not accept him. At times it is humorous, and other times his deeply serious about his desires.
 
In its penultimate poem, and, I think, the heart of the collection, ‘Poem in Noisy Mouthfuls’ works to dismantle and push back against the narrative that, “All you write about is/being gay or Chinese.” by refuting, “Wish I had thought to say to him, All you write about is/being white/or an asshole. Wish I had said, No, I already write about/everything—“. This discussion of writing exclusively about being Asian has cropped up before, and I feel that Chen Chen defies that in a powerful way.
 
Other poems I was deeply moved by were ‘Race to the Tree’, ‘Talented Human Being’, ‘Second Thoughts on a Winter Afternoon’, ‘Didier Et Zizou’, and ‘Chapter VIII’. Chen Chen has a unique, at times abrasive, but always authentic, voice. The collection works initially to show the wound that is created by Chen Chen’s family and the Chinese society around him. Though, throughout the collection he grows to understand himself and his sexuality through the lines, “The parents wait for the child to become a western bird,/but the child/keeps leaking into a northern lake.” The collection works to challenge white heteronormative narritives, parental expectations, Chinese traditions, death, sexuality, and the power structures each contain. I absolutely admired this collection.
 
Final Rating: 5/5
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Maxwell Suzuki is a writer, poet, and photographer based in Los Angeles.

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021

    Categories

    All
    2/5
    2.5/5
    3/5
    3.5/5
    4/5
    4.5/5
    5/5
    Alexander Chee
    Ali Araghi
    Brett Biebel
    Cathy Park Hong
    Chen Chen
    Dang Thuy Tram
    Delia Owens
    Devon Capizzi
    Elie Wiesel
    Esteban Rodriguez
    Fiction
    Jean Kwok
    John Green
    Joy Kogawa
    Julie Otsuka
    Kaveh Akbar
    Kiese Laymon
    L.A. Johnson
    Madeline Miller
    Magazine
    Matthew Salesses
    Michelle Zauner
    Natalie Diaz
    Non Fiction
    Ocean Vuong
    Poetry
    Victoria Chang
    Viet Thanh Nguyen
    Yoshiko Uchida

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Writing / Visual Art
  • Reviews
  • Contact