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How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?
Building on the success of the Journey Prize-shortlisted title story, the stories of How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? present an updated and whimsical new take on what it means to be Canadian. Lau alludes to the personal and political histories of a number of young Asian Canadian characters to explain their unique perspectives of the world, artfully fusing pure delusion and abstract perception with heartbreaking reality.
Correspondingly, the book's title refers to an interview with Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who when asked about the Shanghai Sharks, the team that shaped his formative sporting years, responded, "How does a single blade of grass thank the sun?" Lau's stories feature the children and grandchildren of immigrants, transnational adoptees and multiracial adults who came of age in the 1990s—all struggling to find a place in the Western world and using the only language they know to express their hopes, fears and expectations.
Correspondingly, the book's title refers to an interview with Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, who when asked about the Shanghai Sharks, the team that shaped his formative sporting years, responded, "How does a single blade of grass thank the sun?" Lau's stories feature the children and grandchildren of immigrants, transnational adoptees and multiracial adults who came of age in the 1990s—all struggling to find a place in the Western world and using the only language they know to express their hopes, fears and expectations.
120 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2014
10 people are currently reading
505 people want to read
About the author
Doretta Lau
11 books40 followersDoretta Lau is a journalist who covers arts and culture for Artforum International, South China Morning Post, The Wall Street Journal Asia, and LEAP. She completed an MFA in Writing at Columbia University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Day One, Event, Grain Magazine, Prairie Fire, PRISM International, Ricepaper, sub-TERRAIN, and Zen Monster. She splits her time between Vancouver and Hong Kong, where she is at work on a novel and a screenplay. In 2013, she was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (Nightwood Editions, 2014) is her debut short story collection.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
June 30, 2016
If all of the stories in this slim collection were as good as "Robot by the River," I'd be rating this 5 stars. I agree with another reviewer's comment that the book as a whole feels inconsistent, but I suppose that's common with short story collections, and there are enough good things here to keep me interested in what Doretta Lau will do next.
For me, "Robot" - a story about a girl who befriends another man in her centennial apartment building after her boyfriend leaves to study abroad - showcases what Lau can do with her carefully chosen prose, creating a mood of urban ennui, abandonment, and living in a state of flux. Other stories like "Left And Leaving," the quirky "Rerun," and "Days Of Being Wild" (named after a movie by filmmaker Wong Kar Wai) capture a similar quality. Indeed, Wong Kar Wai's lovelorn and exquisite movies may be subtly influencing many of these thoughtful stories. And that's not a bad thing. I think for me, some of the magical realism or more experimental approaches might detract a bit from the emotional spell Lau can cast, but mostly I loved it. I think fans of writers like Laura van den Burg and Aimee Bender would enjoy Lau's collection, where melancholy intersects with whimsy.
For me, "Robot" - a story about a girl who befriends another man in her centennial apartment building after her boyfriend leaves to study abroad - showcases what Lau can do with her carefully chosen prose, creating a mood of urban ennui, abandonment, and living in a state of flux. Other stories like "Left And Leaving," the quirky "Rerun," and "Days Of Being Wild" (named after a movie by filmmaker Wong Kar Wai) capture a similar quality. Indeed, Wong Kar Wai's lovelorn and exquisite movies may be subtly influencing many of these thoughtful stories. And that's not a bad thing. I think for me, some of the magical realism or more experimental approaches might detract a bit from the emotional spell Lau can cast, but mostly I loved it. I think fans of writers like Laura van den Burg and Aimee Bender would enjoy Lau's collection, where melancholy intersects with whimsy.
July 7, 2023
Clever and rewarding short stories.
In some collections, one notes a disparity between the previously published pieces and the rest; however, that is not the case here. The quality is consistent throughout, although some of the "normal realism" stories, while strong, have difficulty rubbing shoulders with the potent "magic realism" pieces. I found myself anticipating something bizarre to happen, instead of just appreciating the "real life" stories for what they were.
All in all, I enjoyed reading every single story in this collection, and that almost never happens. Well done.
In some collections, one notes a disparity between the previously published pieces and the rest; however, that is not the case here. The quality is consistent throughout, although some of the "normal realism" stories, while strong, have difficulty rubbing shoulders with the potent "magic realism" pieces. I found myself anticipating something bizarre to happen, instead of just appreciating the "real life" stories for what they were.
All in all, I enjoyed reading every single story in this collection, and that almost never happens. Well done.
January 8, 2019
Anyone interested in contemporary Asian Canadian literature and Vancouver writers should read Doretta Lau. Published in 2014, How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a collection of short stories that primarily feature twenty-something Asian Canadians living in Vancouver or studying in New York. Most of the main characters are female, but some are male. Most are children of immigrants or Korean adoptees. How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a whimsical portrait of apathetic and indifferent gen X-ers, mostly unhappy about the direction of their lives and learning to care about things, and maybe lightening up.
How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a quick and easy read. Self-deprecating humour and quirky moments are valued and prized above all else. The stories may be short but the endings are strong - ambiguous but always leaving behind a sense of closure. Yet there’s not much of a plot in most of the stories, although there are amusing conversations like this:
“I worry I am a misogynist,” I say. “My future self is really fond of calling me a slut or a whore, which I find puzzling because I never use either of those words. I’d be much more likely to refer to myself as a douchebag.”
Or one-liners like this:
“All I want is someone similar to me in taste and temperament, but who is a better person than me in every way.”
It's also a zany collection. The first story, “God Damn, How Real Is This?” is about a world where future selves can send text messages to present-day selves. There are other stories influenced by sci fi and paranormal influence including a female going on a date with a ghost musician, and a short story about ghost stories. The stories range from latently strange to bizarre with tales about Tila Tequila-esque reality stars and carnival freaks in Manhattan.
Written in the decade before it was published in 2014, How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? shoehorns cultural references in like Edison Chen sex scandal and 9/11 but the zeitgeist is insufferable gen x. Noam Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming film about university graduates, not sure what to do with their lives but sarcastic and deadpan about everything, come to mind. How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? reminded me of every coming-of-age story about aimless twenty-somethings. A worldview where jobs are a joke, what music you listen to defines you as a person, and parties are the only significant events to happen to people.
It's not a coincidence many of these depressed characters are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the idea of happiness, and it is a common thread that weaves through the stories. In “Days of Being Wild”, Kenichi compliments the protagonist: “You’re the only person I know who isn’t afraid to be unhappy.” "The Boy Next Door" ends with Kent realizing he was wrong to think “happiness had been eluding him.” “Robot by the River” is about a woman in a long-distance relationship and dealing with her unhappiness to the change. Many of the stories deal with grief and mourning the loss of a loved one. These self-absorbed twenty-somethings are some of their hardest critics in a world that feels open with possibilities if only they could get their hearts into it. Life can seem full of inexplicable moments and happiness can be a giant question mark - too earnest to seriously consider, and almost too ridiculous to strive for.
While there is a dip in the quality to the stories where some run out of steam before they end (“Sad Ghosts”, “O, Woe Is Me”, “ReRun”), How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun is a stylized collection of short stories that grab the reader’s attention.
How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a quick and easy read. Self-deprecating humour and quirky moments are valued and prized above all else. The stories may be short but the endings are strong - ambiguous but always leaving behind a sense of closure. Yet there’s not much of a plot in most of the stories, although there are amusing conversations like this:
“I worry I am a misogynist,” I say. “My future self is really fond of calling me a slut or a whore, which I find puzzling because I never use either of those words. I’d be much more likely to refer to myself as a douchebag.”
Or one-liners like this:
“All I want is someone similar to me in taste and temperament, but who is a better person than me in every way.”
It's also a zany collection. The first story, “God Damn, How Real Is This?” is about a world where future selves can send text messages to present-day selves. There are other stories influenced by sci fi and paranormal influence including a female going on a date with a ghost musician, and a short story about ghost stories. The stories range from latently strange to bizarre with tales about Tila Tequila-esque reality stars and carnival freaks in Manhattan.
Written in the decade before it was published in 2014, How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? shoehorns cultural references in like Edison Chen sex scandal and 9/11 but the zeitgeist is insufferable gen x. Noam Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming film about university graduates, not sure what to do with their lives but sarcastic and deadpan about everything, come to mind. How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? reminded me of every coming-of-age story about aimless twenty-somethings. A worldview where jobs are a joke, what music you listen to defines you as a person, and parties are the only significant events to happen to people.
It's not a coincidence many of these depressed characters are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the idea of happiness, and it is a common thread that weaves through the stories. In “Days of Being Wild”, Kenichi compliments the protagonist: “You’re the only person I know who isn’t afraid to be unhappy.” "The Boy Next Door" ends with Kent realizing he was wrong to think “happiness had been eluding him.” “Robot by the River” is about a woman in a long-distance relationship and dealing with her unhappiness to the change. Many of the stories deal with grief and mourning the loss of a loved one. These self-absorbed twenty-somethings are some of their hardest critics in a world that feels open with possibilities if only they could get their hearts into it. Life can seem full of inexplicable moments and happiness can be a giant question mark - too earnest to seriously consider, and almost too ridiculous to strive for.
While there is a dip in the quality to the stories where some run out of steam before they end (“Sad Ghosts”, “O, Woe Is Me”, “ReRun”), How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun is a stylized collection of short stories that grab the reader’s attention.
Read
July 24, 2019Rerun, the story of a washed-up stripper/actress in her mid-twenties, really pleased me. Two-Part Invention includes important Cancon highlight Glenn Gould. Lots of stories set in Vancouver, especially the Vancouver of the 1990s and early 2000s, before the gentrifying billions made houses in Strathcona totally out of reach. Good for perspective in a lot of ways. I also like how she writes about art and music, name-checking without hesitation.
July 23, 2024
This book caught my eye on the shelf at the library because the title is a reference to a line from a famous Tang Dynasty poem called “Traveler’s Song”, which I grew up reading.
It’s a sometimes absurd yet socially perceptive collection of stories that acutely portrays the various experiences of the Asian diaspora in Vancouver and beyond. Not dissimilar to Bliss Montage, but with less magical realism and more subtle observations of the human experience, which I found made the stories more relatable.
I particularly enjoyed Days of Being Wild, Left and Leaving, and Robot by the River precisely because they weren’t flowery and complex, but depicted very tangible themes of love, loneliness, and abandonment. Would be interested to unpack the last story because it was such a tonal shift from the others and was loaded with linguistic and cultural references.
It’s a sometimes absurd yet socially perceptive collection of stories that acutely portrays the various experiences of the Asian diaspora in Vancouver and beyond. Not dissimilar to Bliss Montage, but with less magical realism and more subtle observations of the human experience, which I found made the stories more relatable.
I particularly enjoyed Days of Being Wild, Left and Leaving, and Robot by the River precisely because they weren’t flowery and complex, but depicted very tangible themes of love, loneliness, and abandonment. Would be interested to unpack the last story because it was such a tonal shift from the others and was loaded with linguistic and cultural references.
October 18, 2022
Brilliantly written, highly nostalgic, and some great album recs! If you're from Vancouver, you should read this, and also if you're not from Vancouver.
September 11, 2015
The trouble with most short story collections is inconsistency.
But lets be realistic, it is really tricky to gather together stories from various phases and themes and have everybody like everything. And that should be okay. People have different interests and quirks and perceptions. Wonderful.
Most of the stories in this collection are, for me, a delightful stretch. All are well written and worth reading. Curiously however, the stories set in my home town felt flat. The lacked the verve of the first few stories and seemed mechanical in a way. The last story was so enigmatic that I had a hard time with that one too. Still, I am glad to acknowledge this young woman's brilliance and know that she is someone to keep track of.
But lets be realistic, it is really tricky to gather together stories from various phases and themes and have everybody like everything. And that should be okay. People have different interests and quirks and perceptions. Wonderful.
Most of the stories in this collection are, for me, a delightful stretch. All are well written and worth reading. Curiously however, the stories set in my home town felt flat. The lacked the verve of the first few stories and seemed mechanical in a way. The last story was so enigmatic that I had a hard time with that one too. Still, I am glad to acknowledge this young woman's brilliance and know that she is someone to keep track of.
October 17, 2016
This was a very easy collection of short stories to get through. I often find reading short story collections to be a challenge; it always ends up feeling like homework to finish the book. The stories I enjoy end too quickly and I wish they were novels. And then the boring stories just sit there. This collection had many stories that were really really good and really really moved me, but then they also made me really really mad that they ended so abruptly. I wanted these to be full on novels, fully fleshed out. Then there were other stories that were just... sleep inducing.
Overall I did like this collection and would recommend it to anybody who likes short stories, though I think I'm going to stay away from this genre for awhile.
Overall I did like this collection and would recommend it to anybody who likes short stories, though I think I'm going to stay away from this genre for awhile.
April 23, 2014
Damn but this collection is good. Lau is killer with the first person perspective. I've already re-read "Sad Ghosts" and "Left and Leaving," as well as the Journey Prize-nominated title story.
May 2, 2021
Probably a 3.5 but I rounded up. Some stories were fantastic, others fell a bit flat for me. Worthwhile read though!
May 7, 2021
"All I want is someone similar to me in taste and temperament, but who is a better person than me in every way."
August 23, 2022
I just love all the super precise cultural references in this small but thoroughly enjoyable collection, from the ones that are meant to be picked up instantly (instant noodles juxtaposed with the title of the book), to the more obscure ones that sometimes function as stylistic devices, e.g., character monologues that unfold with the relentless and cringeworthy linearity of a TVB-Jade drama. Granted, some references are probably a tad *too* specific for anybody who doesn't understand the relationship between such distinguished institutions as Miss Chinese International and Miss Hong Kong; but if you understand *that* then this book will make you smile from cover to cover.
But, pray tell, why are all the cute boys in this book either Japanese or Korean?!
But, pray tell, why are all the cute boys in this book either Japanese or Korean?!
July 11, 2014
As we stepped into the living room, Jenna Kim—a girlfriend of an American named Chad or Chuck or Chandler who specialized in Joseon dynasty history and who directed all his conversation at my breasts whenever I had the bad luck of speaking with him—was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. Her skirt was hiked up to her waist, and she wasn’t wearing panties. She had a cigarette in one hand, and was blowing smoke out of her vagina. Jenna was famous for this at parties. She called it her “Singapore hooker trick.”
“Oh, fuck, not again,” I said loudly. “I need another drink.” I went into the kitchen. Kenichi followed.
“Is this type of behaviour common at parties in North America?” he asked, amused.
“She’s such a fucking moron,” I said. “Singapore is the least likely Asian setting for this kind of desperate sex work. I mean, if she had said Thai hooker trick, I’d still be annoyed with her, but at least she wouldn’t come across as so utterly stupid. She has no sense of political and socio-economic realities in different Asian countries. You’d think all of Asia was poor and backwards from her estimation of Singapore.”
Kenichi laughed. “She’s got a cigarette in her pussy and you’re thinking about socio-economic factors and its influence on prostitution?”
***
The twelve stories in Doretta Lau’s How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? focus primarily on the experience of being lost and dissociated, be it from one’s culture, family, career, or by love.
In “Two-Part Invention,” the protagonist, tired of seeking—and failing to find—love amongst the living turns to dating dead people, specifically the pianist Glenn Gould. “Days of Being Wild” looks in on a young Canadian screenwriter living and attending school in New York City as she grapples with grief over the death of her grandmother, crippling self-doubt, guilt rooted in familiar career expectations, and a nasty case of writer’s block. The story feels a bit all over the place in the beginning, as life appears to be happening around the protagonist, but finally achieving an emotional release by the story’s end helps reconnect her to the world.
“O, Woe is Me” and “The Boy Next Door” offer twin tales of down-on-their-luck men in unforgiving relationships with women who simply are not right for them. The first is centred on a shootee (professional victim) at a local sideshow and his life of lost opportunities, be they university athletics or competitive eating, and his girlfriend who appears to loathe his very being. The second follows a recently unemployed photographer, whose girlfriend does not approve of his vocation, as he flirts with the idea of entering the porn industry in order to make ends meet.
“God Damn, How Real is This?,” “Rerun,” “Left and Leaving,” and “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?” are the standout stories in this collection. In the first, society is grappling with the sudden reality of Communicative Time Travel as people’s future selves attempt to steer their pasts in new directions by sending text messages back through time, warning of illnesses, avoidable crises, and poor decisions. “Rerun” follows a twenty-four-year-old former actress attempting to get her life back on track after ditching her seventy-year-old meal ticket at the altar, simultaneously working through the revelation that the majority of her life has been some form of pretend with little reality to ground her to any one identity. “Left and Leaving” uses two events far too familiar to anyone from the Lower Mainland, BC—the Reena Virk murder case and the growing number of missing women from the DTES who would later be revealed as Robert Pickton’s victims—to tell the story of two young girls whose mother is among the missing, and their difficulties flitting from one school and one foster care situation to another. And in the collection’s title track, Lau employs an almost A Clockwork Orange style of diction as a group of Chinese youths—dragoons, not droogies—get on with a bit of recklessness (not quite ultraviolence, but the vibe is similar) as they “reclaim” racist and racially stereotyped terms and insults for use as their personalized nomenclature.
I didn’t find there to be any weak stories in this collection, though when stacked against the four tales listed above, a few of the remaining pieces—“Writing in Light” and “Sad Ghosts” in particular—don’t hit with the same force of impact. Lau’s writing is consistently enjoyable, and her tone strikes a fine balance between sarcastic levity and sincerity. If I were to lobby any complaint against the collected work it would be that several of the protagonists feel cut from too similar a cloth, with only their experiences lending independence to their voices.
There are several recurring themes throughout How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?—drinking and alcoholism, adoption/foster homes, and the film and television industry offer strong aesthetic and thematic grounding to much of Lau’s work. Additionally, she is quite enamoured with photography and visual art in general; being as heavily involved as I was with the Vancouver visual art community in the late ’90s and early 2000s helped anchor me emotionally to several of the stories collected within.
Running a scant 120 pages, there’s little to no wasted space in Lau’s work. The stories are universally tight, and any surrealism or abstraction is spread judiciously throughout. This is an easy recommendation—How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a fantastic one- or two-sitting read.
“Oh, fuck, not again,” I said loudly. “I need another drink.” I went into the kitchen. Kenichi followed.
“Is this type of behaviour common at parties in North America?” he asked, amused.
“She’s such a fucking moron,” I said. “Singapore is the least likely Asian setting for this kind of desperate sex work. I mean, if she had said Thai hooker trick, I’d still be annoyed with her, but at least she wouldn’t come across as so utterly stupid. She has no sense of political and socio-economic realities in different Asian countries. You’d think all of Asia was poor and backwards from her estimation of Singapore.”
Kenichi laughed. “She’s got a cigarette in her pussy and you’re thinking about socio-economic factors and its influence on prostitution?”
***
The twelve stories in Doretta Lau’s How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? focus primarily on the experience of being lost and dissociated, be it from one’s culture, family, career, or by love.
In “Two-Part Invention,” the protagonist, tired of seeking—and failing to find—love amongst the living turns to dating dead people, specifically the pianist Glenn Gould. “Days of Being Wild” looks in on a young Canadian screenwriter living and attending school in New York City as she grapples with grief over the death of her grandmother, crippling self-doubt, guilt rooted in familiar career expectations, and a nasty case of writer’s block. The story feels a bit all over the place in the beginning, as life appears to be happening around the protagonist, but finally achieving an emotional release by the story’s end helps reconnect her to the world.
“O, Woe is Me” and “The Boy Next Door” offer twin tales of down-on-their-luck men in unforgiving relationships with women who simply are not right for them. The first is centred on a shootee (professional victim) at a local sideshow and his life of lost opportunities, be they university athletics or competitive eating, and his girlfriend who appears to loathe his very being. The second follows a recently unemployed photographer, whose girlfriend does not approve of his vocation, as he flirts with the idea of entering the porn industry in order to make ends meet.
“God Damn, How Real is This?,” “Rerun,” “Left and Leaving,” and “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?” are the standout stories in this collection. In the first, society is grappling with the sudden reality of Communicative Time Travel as people’s future selves attempt to steer their pasts in new directions by sending text messages back through time, warning of illnesses, avoidable crises, and poor decisions. “Rerun” follows a twenty-four-year-old former actress attempting to get her life back on track after ditching her seventy-year-old meal ticket at the altar, simultaneously working through the revelation that the majority of her life has been some form of pretend with little reality to ground her to any one identity. “Left and Leaving” uses two events far too familiar to anyone from the Lower Mainland, BC—the Reena Virk murder case and the growing number of missing women from the DTES who would later be revealed as Robert Pickton’s victims—to tell the story of two young girls whose mother is among the missing, and their difficulties flitting from one school and one foster care situation to another. And in the collection’s title track, Lau employs an almost A Clockwork Orange style of diction as a group of Chinese youths—dragoons, not droogies—get on with a bit of recklessness (not quite ultraviolence, but the vibe is similar) as they “reclaim” racist and racially stereotyped terms and insults for use as their personalized nomenclature.
I didn’t find there to be any weak stories in this collection, though when stacked against the four tales listed above, a few of the remaining pieces—“Writing in Light” and “Sad Ghosts” in particular—don’t hit with the same force of impact. Lau’s writing is consistently enjoyable, and her tone strikes a fine balance between sarcastic levity and sincerity. If I were to lobby any complaint against the collected work it would be that several of the protagonists feel cut from too similar a cloth, with only their experiences lending independence to their voices.
There are several recurring themes throughout How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?—drinking and alcoholism, adoption/foster homes, and the film and television industry offer strong aesthetic and thematic grounding to much of Lau’s work. Additionally, she is quite enamoured with photography and visual art in general; being as heavily involved as I was with the Vancouver visual art community in the late ’90s and early 2000s helped anchor me emotionally to several of the stories collected within.
Running a scant 120 pages, there’s little to no wasted space in Lau’s work. The stories are universally tight, and any surrealism or abstraction is spread judiciously throughout. This is an easy recommendation—How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? is a fantastic one- or two-sitting read.
June 3, 2023
I wanted too much out of this anthology.
All the short stories feel like half finished thoughts that go nowhere, everyone in them spinning in place, filled with despair or alcoholism or disappointment. They're both too real, as if the author is pulling them from her thoughts and daydreams, and too unrelatably distant.
The title of the collection made me think of or want something that the titular story was exceptionally bad at delivering.
All in all, just like Jeff Wall's photography, super not my cup of tea.
All the short stories feel like half finished thoughts that go nowhere, everyone in them spinning in place, filled with despair or alcoholism or disappointment. They're both too real, as if the author is pulling them from her thoughts and daydreams, and too unrelatably distant.
The title of the collection made me think of or want something that the titular story was exceptionally bad at delivering.
All in all, just like Jeff Wall's photography, super not my cup of tea.
December 14, 2017
This was another rare book of short stories that I enjoyed. Lau presented a number of interesting and likeable characters and settings in her handful of stories (this is a very slim volume), a number of them set in Vancouver. In most cases, I was quite engaged with her stories and cared about what happened to the characters. If she writes another volume, I'd definitely pick it up.
If you like short stories and/or Vancouver as a setting, definitely read.
If you like short stories and/or Vancouver as a setting, definitely read.
September 26, 2018
Loved this little book of stories! Each one was different and interesting with compelling characters and made me far more sensitive to how my default writing voice is "white". These stories are alive with relatable desires and interesting ideas, and they are as much Canadian stories as Munro or Jarman -- built with care and deliberate choices that really work.
Highly recommend this book for a romp through stories with heart and comedy both.
Highly recommend this book for a romp through stories with heart and comedy both.
September 22, 2019
Quite a few of the stories fell flat for me because the characters seemed closed off and inaccessible. I got most of the cultural references and the Vancouver setting was comfortingly familiar. We need more stories about Korean adoptees! Other than Nicole Chung's autobiographical non-fiction book, I am not aware of fictional works detailing their experience. The title story is bold and zingy.
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October 15, 2023Need to read more books set where I live! Listened to the audiobook, standout for me was “Robot by the River” following a drifting Vancouverite over passing months. The narrator lived in the Shaughnessy Lodge which I pass by often and that made me feel special. Also this version of Vancouver no longer exists 10 years later lol
January 24, 2019
I have never been able to read an entire book of short stories, from cover to cover, until today! The stories are funny, quirky, melancholic, heartbreaking, and thrilling. A real emotional roller coaster.
February 28, 2022
I listened to the audio book and it was fun to recognize Andrea Bang's voice (from Kim's Convenience). Some of the short stories gripped me, some disturbed me. It was interesting to get a look at what life may be like for Asian Canadians. I loved that some of the stories were set in BC.
January 2, 2026
3.8 stars
Some stories were really good and i would give like 4.5/5 stars, but most were just pretty good so on average i'm giving this 3.8 stars. Especially enjoyed “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?”, "Left and Leaving", and "Days of Being Wild".
Some stories were really good and i would give like 4.5/5 stars, but most were just pretty good so on average i'm giving this 3.8 stars. Especially enjoyed “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?”, "Left and Leaving", and "Days of Being Wild".
February 22, 2018
A few of these stories were absolutely brilliant -- simple, honest, and devastating. Doretta Lau is obviously very talented. But as a collection this book is ill conceived. A number of the stories just felt like writing exercises -- amusing to produce but you don't make a book out of them. Those ones felt phony, pretentious. All the same, given the beautiful simplicity and perfection of a couple of these stories, I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
July 12, 2018
Doretta Lau's writing is fascinating, honest and thought-provoking. She has so much talent.
August 30, 2019
be ready to feel some things
January 27, 2022
Every single story I was just giddy with excitement for all the landmarks of my hometown being detailed in stories!
What must it be like to be from London? Or New York? It’s no wonder they think they’re the centre of the universe 😂
(….. no offence…… or maybe some, actually, to the nations as a whole not to the individuals residing in them)
What must it be like to be from London? Or New York? It’s no wonder they think they’re the centre of the universe 😂
(….. no offence…… or maybe some, actually, to the nations as a whole not to the individuals residing in them)
June 9, 2023
i loooooved "little miss international goodwill"
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February 16, 2025i just read “two-part intervention” bc i saw it explained in a youtube video and related to it
i haven’t contacted a medium yet though
i haven’t contacted a medium yet though
July 27, 2019
The final short story that this collection is named for is probably one of the funniest short stories I’ve read in a long time. So much intertext that non-Chinese folks might have a tough time understanding all of it, which just makes it even better.
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July 27, 2015http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
Review by Yutaka Dirks
"I knew that I would have a better chance of selling a love story than an action film because I was a woman," says one of the characters, struggling over her film-school thesis, at the centre of Doretta Lau's short story collection, How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? "That was supposed to be my territory: shopping and grooming and courtship and marriage." Lau subverts such regressive gender expectations in the book -- a stylistically diverse debut anchored by young, urban Asian-Canadian protagonists.
"In school, I'd read a lot of work by writers from a certain generation -- Joy Kogawa, Wayson Choy and others -- that told stories about the trauma of immigration, the building of the railroad, internment; stories that helped reshape our thinking about Canada," says Lau. "They've given me this incredible opportunity to write something new. I find it problematic that the white male voice is considered the standard in literature. It's important for me that the characters in my work are Asian-Canadian, but I want to write stories about living life -- poorly or well -- today."
Lau wrote the 12 stories in How does… over a course of ten years while studying in New York and living in Vancouver and Hong Kong, yet the world she creates is assuredly of the present.
A young New Yorker makes a meagre living dodging paintballs and rotten vegetables at a Coney Island carnival. A depressed young woman develops an ambiguous friendship with a young guitarist, who lives in the same Vancouver apartment building, while her boyfriend is away in London. A washed-up child television star leaves her rich, aging fiancé at the altar; the next morning she finds that her mother, who pushed her into the engagement, has married the old man instead.
"I'm interested in isolating moments in someone's life," says Lau. "The moment where they make a decision that alters things, or where something life-changing happens."
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
Review by Yutaka Dirks
"I knew that I would have a better chance of selling a love story than an action film because I was a woman," says one of the characters, struggling over her film-school thesis, at the centre of Doretta Lau's short story collection, How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? "That was supposed to be my territory: shopping and grooming and courtship and marriage." Lau subverts such regressive gender expectations in the book -- a stylistically diverse debut anchored by young, urban Asian-Canadian protagonists.
"In school, I'd read a lot of work by writers from a certain generation -- Joy Kogawa, Wayson Choy and others -- that told stories about the trauma of immigration, the building of the railroad, internment; stories that helped reshape our thinking about Canada," says Lau. "They've given me this incredible opportunity to write something new. I find it problematic that the white male voice is considered the standard in literature. It's important for me that the characters in my work are Asian-Canadian, but I want to write stories about living life -- poorly or well -- today."
Lau wrote the 12 stories in How does… over a course of ten years while studying in New York and living in Vancouver and Hong Kong, yet the world she creates is assuredly of the present.
A young New Yorker makes a meagre living dodging paintballs and rotten vegetables at a Coney Island carnival. A depressed young woman develops an ambiguous friendship with a young guitarist, who lives in the same Vancouver apartment building, while her boyfriend is away in London. A washed-up child television star leaves her rich, aging fiancé at the altar; the next morning she finds that her mother, who pushed her into the engagement, has married the old man instead.
"I'm interested in isolating moments in someone's life," says Lau. "The moment where they make a decision that alters things, or where something life-changing happens."
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2014/0...
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