Fog & Car

by Eugene Lim, Renee Gladman (Contributor)

EUGENE LIM'S WRY AND HAUNTING DEBUT NOVEL RETURNS TO SHELVES WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM RENEE GLADMAN

Eugene Lim uses wry humor, ingenious poetics, and supernatural puzzles to follow the strings that connect two lives.

Reconciling life after divorce, Jim secludes himself in the Midwest, living in an aimless nostalgia, while Sarah runs headfirst through New York in an attempt to bypass the grief of her dissolved marriage. Mystically connected by an old friend and the effects of his actions, they both attempt to chase him down—the resulting unexplained coincidences, cryptic fortunes blur the lines between reality and the supernatural. Intertwined by their past, Jim and Sarah’s lives become entangled in a moving mystery of loss, grief, and the loneliness of the human condition.

PRAISE FOR FOG & CAR
Literary Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2024"
Bookshop “100 Most Anticipated Books of 2024”
Reactor, "Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for July and August 2024"

"Fans of Dear Cyborgs and Search History will be delighted to see the genesis of Lim’s searching and curious style." —Literary Hub

“Fog & Car’s tale of the aftermath of a divorce, in which its characters’ lives grow increasingly bizarre, demonstrates Lim’s skill at evoking the quotidian and the evocative.” —Tobias Carroll, Reactor

"No one is writing like Lim. If anything, Lim forces us to articulate how we ask questions of the world—inside and outside literature. How does anyone act in retaliation or defense? How does anyone appraise and evaluate anything at all? How does one live inside this impasse?” —Shinjini Dey, Cleveland Review of Books

"Eugene Lim intertwines elegant poetics with a fantastic plot, rife with love, mystery, malaise, and the supernatural. His gift for ingenious, startling permutations of language and plot make for a memorable, mesmerizing read. It was hard for me to put Fog & Car down; harder for me to stop thinking about." —Lynn Crawford

"The events of this novel take place in a space contrary to action, illuminating the silences of the page and the nothing that haunts the borders of ‘doing something.’ A beautifully paced and thoughtful work." —Renee Gladman

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Novels

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Eugene Lim is the author of the novels Fog & Car (Ellipsis Press, 2008; Coffee House Press 2024), The Strangers (Black Square Editions, 2013; Coffee House Press 2026), Dear Cyborgs (FSG Originals, 2017), and Search History (Coffee House Press, 2021). His writings have appeared in The New Yorker, The Believer, The Baffler, Granta, Dazed, Little Star, The Denver Quarterly, The Brooklyn Rail, Your Impossible Voice, Vestiges and elsewhere. He is the librarian at Hunter College High School, runs Ellipsis Press, and lives in Jackson Heights, NY.

Reviews

[Nate D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpectedly completely involving. Why unexpected? Perhaps because when a beloved Goodreads reviewer (the only reader to beat me to writing about Island People, which gets an epigraph in here in fact) reveals a debut novel (to be fair, it probably existed before I started reading his reviews, but I learned of it after) something in me pushes back, a certain set of expectations of what someone who read similar things to those I do might do in their own work. I already know I'll like this, and probably why, or think I do. Is it too comfortable already? It's probably a stupid reaction. And yes, it is clearly is stupid when this novel, picked up years ago and inexplicably (or as explicated above) put off til now, comes off as so completely refreshing and, yes, unexpected in all ways. Despite a formal polish that I would expect from a reader of Island People among others, this defied all my preconceptions: a subtle book about relationships and how a life evolves and the passage of time, for two parallel interior voices divided by divorce, which gradually warps into something unforeseen, familiar bleeding into unknown, simultaneously elaborate and mundane, unaffected yet tracing obscure design. And so I'm totally drawn in, I love this. Eugene Lim, I'm sorry it took me so long to read this fantastic novel, and happy to know that you have produced two more since.

[Brent Legault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its near fetishistic eshewence* of metaphor, I really liked this novel. I know metaphors aren't cool right now but then niether am I. I've never been cool. Never been even remotely cool. But this novel is cool. Read it and see. Imagine the time you'll save, not having to read all those pesky metaphors, which are just filler anyway, right? Except, I began to spend a lot of time looking for metaphors once I realized there wouldn't be any. Kind of like looking for an e in A Void.


*I know that eschewence isn't a word, in case you think I'm stupid or something.

[Ilya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've seen this book compared to the art of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Haruki Murakami and Paul Auster. Maybe I was reading a different book because I cannot say that Fog & Car matches any of the aforementioned creators. Originally published in 2008, this book was recently republished by Coffee House Press. This book deals with Jim Fog and his ex-wife Sarah Car and the ways in which they cope with their divorce. I liked the beginning of the book but I thought that the story stalled in the second half. It's not a terrible read, but it's not amazing either. 3 stars.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute joy to read. A story about love, loss, and fate that blurs a line between reality and fantasy. Engaging not only with Lim’s beautiful writing, but also with the unique narrative styles and prose he employs. I’ll be revisiting this.

[yuni · Rating 5 out of 5]

completely enveloped me, I felt ill with melancholy by the end of it and so unexpectedly revived to my senses that when I stepped outside to see the sun setting I was surprised by my tears. made me remember casual mysteries of disappearance and encounter in my life that I will never get over. Probably my favorite living writer

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an remarkable book, continuously surprising, unnerving, uncanny - with an ongoing human empathy and depth that is hard to believe in such a strange, uncompromising novel.

[Jana Kimmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

written in a new way, especially in the beginning. feels like you are right there in between mr fog under mrs car - observing them finding a start into a life on their own and slowly shifting focus.

[Shannan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fog & Car is a complex novel that explores the human psyches of two seemingly very different people who have divorced and are trying to move forward with their lives. However, like many going through divorce, in order to move forward, there is quite a bit of looking back.

Jim Fog and Sarah Car find themselves uncoupling in very different ways. Jim is a rather uninspired teacher living in the Midwest and entering into a new relationship and eventual marriage to a woman more worldly and with a bigger persona. He is moving forward without looking back to his bewildered detriment, not even recognizing a close friend from the past.

Sarah is trying to live the life she always wanted in New York City, over-relying on booze, a job she really doesn’t want, and reliving the past. When she see’s the same friend Jim didn’t recognize, she becomes obsessed with following him to see what she is to do next.

Eugene Lim creates a story of two people with intriguing prose that leaves the reader a little off kilter, a bit confused, but nevertheless hungry to see what happens next for both Fog and Car. In fact, to the very end, it is a parallel between the uncertainty of the characters and the reader as to where we are all heading and where exactly we’ve come from, which we don’t find out until we come to “Cog and Far”.

This re-release brings back a story that will garner a new group of Lim fans.

My thanks to Coffee House Press for the review copy of this book through Edelweiss, which I received in exchange for my honest review.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea what any of this meant

[Sara Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

i thought the premise was a great idea for a book: it’s about a couple that has just divorced, and they each alternate chapters where they share their perspective on the grief they are both experiencing. but this author thought “how can i write this in the most obnoxious, cringe, pretentious way possible in order to ruin this great idea?” and then he wrote this!!

[Mateo Fortes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetic, unusual, strange, and still managed to evoke loss, grief, humanity
Follows two people (Fog & Car) after a separation
At moments, too experimental for me, but that's Coffeehouse Press for you
Parts 2 & 3 > Part 1, simply for more *plot*

[Sav Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written in such a way that I could understand what was happening about 25% of the time. Very unpleasant to read, and came across very pretentious.

[Harry Smith]

Bizarre. Alright!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

God I loved this book.
Eugene balances this gorgeous, tentativeness as both slightly broken souls naviagate life beyond marriage and imaginations of marriage. I found myself laughing, albeit slightly moritified at moments of self-recognition in captured essences of apartments, letter-writing and understanding of self.
Just beautiful.

[A.D. Jameson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully strange little book, completely unpredictable, and a journey well-worth taking. This one has stuck with me in the two years since I read it and reviewed it for RCF, and I plan to revisit it in time.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a slippery book. Loved it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his mesmerizing 2008 debut, Lim (Dear Cyborg, Search History) takes readers on an unforgettable, transformative journey into the obscure byways of the self. Alternating distinctly-voiced chapters draw us into the post-divorce lives of Car, busily distracted with building her new life in a new city, and Fog, yielding to reminiscent inertia back in his childhood home, adrift in a moody, liminal “slowtime.” Portrayed with keen and compassionate verisimilitude, these sympathetic characters’ deviating courses seem likely to revert to some familiar mean. But when an old friend named Frank Exit re-enters their lives, we find the path has grown strange and vertiginous. The startling effect is a little like looking down to find the cat we’ve been absentmindedly stroking is, in fact, a tiger. Lim’s feat is to guide us through this surreal, transgressive territory with humane intelligence that feels expansive rather than manipulative. The dark dreamlike veracity of Lim’s novel may be remindful of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, Murakami and Auster, but it’s moving and revelatory insights into the mysteries of human nature are wholly his own.

[James Worth · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few lines of really cutting humor in here and a very pointed dissection of the misery of heterosexuality. Otherwise, this did not work for me. There was a story in here but it felt as though the author was focusing on the wrong one, every so often shifting toward something actually interesting before pulling away again. The narrative was disjointed in a boring, irritating way. It started at the wrong place and did not end anywhere satisfying. The ancillary characters were much more interesting and fleshed out than the central characters. Nothing connected and everything disappointed. Points for gay sex.

[Sara Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too diffuse for my taste.

[womp womp oemp oemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 or HIGH 3 I wld do 3 which is compatible with how I rate but not enough ratings here it’s def 4


Literature by a brooklyn librarian u can sooooo tell it’s wonderful

[Alex Beige · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel nostalgic for being divorced in my 30s despite never being married. Much to look forward to.

[Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the concept and characters.

Looking forward to reading The Strangers and being a Eugene Lim completionist.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird and wonderful!

[Jolie Joswick]

I may need to read this again or sit with it before giving it a rating. I feel like is was a casual grief stricken walk into a fever dream

[David Magill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very well written -- lyrical in sections -- and mysterious, but I found it hard to connect to the characters.

[Paul Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this short one.
The multiple points of view added to the story while keeping reader knowledge limited.
Worth the read!

Still mulling over that poem at the end.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m coming to know Coffee House for surreal and unusual reads; Fog and Car falls neatly into this category. It took me a while to get into this novel’s structure: alternating POVs of the two main characters, Fog and Car, who are recently divorced but who are still linked emotionally and also through a strange friend of Fog’s, named Frank. The story starts off as a kind of review of post-divorce life: the analysis, memories, regrets, self-justification to some degree even as you know you still love the other and still make room for them, etc. But things get otherworldly when Car sees Frank—or thinks she does—on the street, and spends a few days obsessively following (stalking) him before she approaches him. After that—well, Reader, your guess is as good as mine. Soul-swapping, a psychic, weird parties, and more.

I did enjoy it. I also don’t know what I read—which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t make for a good review. It feels like Lim took a couple of random threads and a basic premise—this couple, post-divorce—and wove a web. It’s a story, with large holes. It’s memorable, and poignant on divorce, and trying to pick up the pieces after.

Many thanks to Coffee House Press and Edelweiss for early access.

[Alan M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I would enthuse in the same way that other reviewers have.

The story of recently divorced couple Fog and Car, as they negotiate new lives and new relationships. With shifting narrative perspectives it takes a while to settle in, and I was never totally convinced by the technique, but this is a reasonably engaging story that kept me reading until the end. I feel like I missed a lot, though, so maybe it was just me. 3.5 stars, can't quite round it up though.

[Tim Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not so much that I didn’t ‘get’ this book, it’s that, in the end, what is there to ‘get’ from it? A discombobulated mess.
A story of hopelessness & discovery & inventiveness, forever chasing after change. This is the crux of Fog & Car.
After Jim Fog & Sarah Car divorce, each takes necessary steps towards closure - both desperately wanting a pathway to change. But change can’t be forced thus nothing satisfies. In the end, life is life, one day at a time doing chores and laundry. Each copes with the pain until it’s no longer pain and they realize they forgot it hurt so bad. And then a trigger and they remember all over again. Because memories are connected to people and you can’t run from either. In Fog & Car, both turn to people while memories continually turn up.
Each seeks to differing means to heal, running and exploring yet still struggling to embrace the mysteries of life. Then minor characters Judy & Frank rise to the forefront. For what? To bring out the juxtaposition of the deceptions of hope.
At the end be of this book I felt nothing which maybe was the point. Despite the few small twinges of hopefulness, Eugene Lim’s book left me numb.
A creative storyteller, I felt the mess, but for what?

[Jeremy Cullins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just....very confused.