Kim, Derek Kirk - Same Difference and Other Stories

[oyceter]

This is a collection of shorts that Kim previously published online; although I think some have recurring characters, others feel very random. Also, I read it over a week ago and already returned it to the library, so my memory of this is very sketchy. (Oh hey, it's available online! Check out the right column in Lowbright to find links to the other shorts in the book.)

I felt like this volume has much of the American indie comic sensibility—crowded art, neurotic characters, big focus on failed love lives—which is sad, as there's a reason why I don't read many American indie comics (I know, I stereotype). I didn't feel for either of the characters in the main story, particularly with the way one talks about a blind character ("Her eyes were so giant and sparkling and gorgeous, like she could see things we couldn't!"). I do like that the blind girl shows up later and acts like a normal person, but when the other two characters were talking to each other, all I could think was that I so didn't feel for them feeling awkward about saying things like "As you can see" or whatnot.

I also hated the plotline revolving around Nancy sending a letter back to someone who seemed to be stalking his girlfriend. There's acknowledgement that what Nancy does is mean-spirited, but not enough for me, and the ending portraying the letter-sending guy as sad also annoyed me, given that he was the one sending creepy, stalker-y letters.

I don't know. Much of the humor (much of it scatalogical) didn't amuse me, and the general neuroticness annoyed me. It was good to see bits of Korean-American-ness in there as background, but not the center, but all the same, it wasn't enough to get me over my dislike of the characters. I'd personally skip this and go for Kim's Good as Lily instead.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

The one that I liked best from this was the little two-page thing about hurdle-jumping, where the coach asks the protagonist if (I think) he's Korean, "because the Chinese are smart." Punch to the throat.

[oyceter]

Heee! I forgot about that one!

[octopedingenue]

It's great! Just long enough to get the point across, not long enough of story-rope to hang itself with.

[octopedingenue]

Off-topic: Have you read The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones? I read it this week because it was the book club pick for my store, and without being wowed I liked it fine except for moments of OH JOHN RINGO NO (we've got a book set in Asia! SOMEBODY'S GOTTA BE A PROSTITUTE). But my favorite bits by far were about the history of Chinese food, especially literary Chinese food, and I am curious about how much of those are accurate. Possibly a library trip is in on my menu.

[oyceter]

I have not! I can't remember if you mentioned it or if someone else mentioned another book about a Chinese chef (it may have been someone else, because I think that one was non-fiction and he trained in France), but that sounds interesting! I bought a book on Chinese food history (very slim, written for laypeople) in Shanghai, but haven't gotten a chance to read it yet...

[octopedingenue]

Yeah, this one's fiction and written by a white American who'd worked in China. It's picking up word-of-mouth steam as a book club book, so you may be hearing about it that way; a food writer goes to China to investigate a paternity claim against her dead husband and also interview a biracial Chinese-Jewish-American chef training there, cue cross-cultural-romance-with-food tra-la-la. At least the literary food bits made me happy and I hope some are true. For instance, there's a bit where they're all "Should we make this corn cake that's a blatant political reference to West Dowager Empress?" etc., and then elsewhere the chef guy's uncle training him tells him to prepare this particular pairing of foods, which chef guy recognizes as a reference to food poem A, so he also makes a side dish that will throw back a reference to food poem B, and I'm like "EEEEEEEEE FOOD META!"

[oyceter]

Oooooo! That is so cool!! I sadly doubt I could pick up on any of the meta without it being explained, but still! Food meta!