Transparency: Stories [Paperback]

Frances Hwang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2007

With a deceptively simple yet graceful style, and in the tradition of Lara Vapnyar, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Gish Jen, Frances Hwang captures the thousand minor battles waged in the homes of immigrants--struggles to preserve timehonored traditions or break free of them, to maintain authority or challenge it, and to take advantage of modern excesses without diluting one's ethnic identity.

In "Garden City," a weary Chinese couple, struggling to evict their deadbeat tenant, is forced to face the aftermath of their teenage son's death from cancer. And in "The Old Gentleman," a daughter becomes alienated from her father when he finds love--or what he thinks could be love--in his old age. Frances Hwang is a powerful talent, and TRANSPARENCY not only showcases her myriad gifts, but also announces the arrival of an exciting new voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A largely unlovable cast of hard-nosed Chinese-Americans search for their rightful places in the 10 carefully wrought tales of Hwang's debut. "The Old Gentleman," which opens the collection, finds a Taiwanese émigré widower remarryinig for love, ironically scandalizing his divorced, thoroughly Americanized daughter. The complicated relations between two family branches of émigrés drives "A Visit to the Suns": young women home from college feel "blunted" by their parents' strictness, while the coddling of the boy cousin leads him to sloth and rudeness. "Garden City" follows the aging, fallen-out-of-love Chens, whose tragic loss of their young son from a brain tumor leaves them at the mercy of an unreliable tenant ("the Christian lady") in the throes of her own private misery. Several stories resonate with youthful pangs of heartache and rebellion: "Blue Hour" finds a group of mid-20s friends unsure how to behave among themselves on a New Year's Eve trek into New York City, while "Sonata for the Left Hand" delineates a young woman's disappointing love affair with an exciting, coldhearted fellow teacher at an upstate New York boarding school. More panorama than thematic set, Hwang's debut is brisk and direct. (Apr.)
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About the Author

Frances Hwang has a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from the University of Virginia, and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She has attended the MacDowell Colony and Provincetown creative writing workshops, and she was the Olive B. O'Connor Creative Writing Fellow at Colgate University. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (April 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316166936
• ISBN-13: 978-0316166935
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Notable Debut, April 13, 2007

By 

Jay Johnson (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transparency: Stories (Paperback)

Each story is a delicate collision: between family, friends, cultures, generations. Frances Hwang chronicles believable characters in complex situations; her sly prose weaves turbulent emotions underneath a patina of decorum. Transparency is a remarkable collection that will engage a wide range of discerning readers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection!, April 11, 2007

By 

Linda Swanson-Davies (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Transparency: Stories (Paperback)

These stories are moving (but not sentimental), deeply revealing, and gorgeously written. I loved the whole batch.

5.0 out of 5 stars a very relaxed style of writing, June 26, 2007

By 

Reader Views "Reviews, by readers, for readers" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transparency: Stories (Paperback)

Reviewed by Deb Shunamon for Reader Views (6/07)


Frances Hwang's "Transparency" will appeal to anyone who enjoys well-written and thoughtful glimpses of life. This wonderful collection of short stories is promoted as having a focus on the generational and cultural challenges of Chinese immigrants and their American-born children, but I found these insightful tales to be equally about the search for meaning and direction in all people's lives.

"Sonata for a Left Hand" was my favorite; a lovely presentation of our innate human need for connection and belonging. Other topics involve women negotiating life as best they can; and the younger generation's lack of idealism and search for meaning in their lives, often times thinking they are (or are trying their best to be) different from their parents, but not realizing that the values they were raised with tie them closer to their families than they realize. It was only when I was reminded that the characters were Chinese-American that I found myself paying attention to this cultural group, and in stories such as "The Modern Age" and "Transparency," the reader learns that cultural changes are not an easy thing for anyone, at any age. However, even these stories still spoke to me of common experiences between people, and families, beyond this one community.

Frances Hwang has a very relaxed style of writing. She eases you into her stories and they flow effortlessly along, and before you know it, you find yourself very anxious to learn what will happen next. She also never disappoints in providing realistic endings that encourage the reader to stop and think before continuing on. In "Transparency," Frances Hwang offers readers a diverse array of general, and Chinese-American, experiences as people make their way through modern life. I really enjoyed my time with this book.

Book received free of charge.