![]() ![]() ![]() And as a story in part concerned with hauntings-a topic Chang, too, is interested in, saying in her BOMB interview that she “wanted to reanimate history as this memory of something that is continually haunting”-the story’s plot is driven by the family’s attempt to rid themselves of the ghost of their father, their patriarch. Their father, who isn’t dead, has ghosted them. I was drawn back to “Baba” because of the magical, nearly surreal elements packed tightly into this story about an Asian family-a mother and son and daughter, none of whom are named-trying to find their father who has left to work in a slot machine factory he moves alone to Chengdu, “a city that sizzles out in mouth like a match”, and before long stops calling and stops sending money back to them week after week. ![]() That wasn’t the sole reason why I chose to look at this story, though. In an interview for BOMB magazine, K-Ming Chang described her debut novel, Bestiary, as being “structured around the violence of men, around martial law and…different social forces” which is part of why I was drawn to her short story “ Baba” ( Gulf Coast Fall/Winter 2020) that weaves tradition and culture into a modern ghost story. ![]()
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