Mascara
Hoa Pham reviews Anguli Ma: A Gothic Tale by Chi Vu
'The suburban setting is portrayed as stark and unfriendly to the Vietnamese characters. The characterisation of Anguli Ma is similarly intense, from the bloody scissors he uses for his work at the abattoir, to the running over and eating of a dog in a suburban wasteland.'
Hoa Pham, writer, playwright, and founding editor of Peril, illuminates the Buddhist and Australian gothic elements in Chi Vu’s 2013 novella Anguli Ma: A Gothic Tale, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Community Relations Prize. Hoa Pham observes that, importantly, Chi Vu’s dark novella offers ‘a counter-narrative to the brightness of other popular refugee narratives’.
Those interested in reading the critical essay on 1.5 Generation Vietnamese-American writers by Chi Vu, which is referenced in the piece, can do so via the Kunapipi magazine archive.
A Review of Heidi Everett's My Friend Fox
My Friend Fox is unwieldy, and difficult to categorise – which fits the subject matter perfectly. Everett’s prose gallops from the page, full of allusive language and metaphor – and this brimming is intentional, is part of the experience of living through and with mental illness. The non-linear structure and movement between non-fiction and fiction, with animal voices and illustrations interspersed throughout the book create a text that is bursting forth with life, rich in metaphor and unafraid to sit with complexity.