"In his new story collection, Park, the author of two approachably surreal novels, sends his reader on a set of mind-opening trips, drawing absurd connections and inventing wacky situations: A narrator’s girlfriend insists on wearing a 'housecoat' at home—a 'sort of down-filled poncho with stirrups'; a man turns on his laptop one day to see his ex-wife walking across the screen. These oddball scenarios may make you laugh, but they can just as easily have you questioning your place in the universe. In 'Machine City,' an undergrad is fascinated by meta works of art—books within books, smaller paintings depicted within larger ones. He wonders whether the 'interior' work is less authentic than the one in which it’s embedded. And if a painting can contain a painter painting another painting, 'could we ourselves be paintings, painted by some larger, divine painter—i.e., God?' He can’t stop asking himself these kinds of questions, which won’t help him get into law school. Even when Park writes about mundane experiences—his stories chronicle time spent online, on college campuses, and in post-divorce apartments—he is taking us someplace new." — Maya Chung