The Naif

by Valerie Hsiung

The Naif lives in a practiced state of naivety—a language-fasted, resource-starved loop—and it lives as a test: of what awareness, what becoming, what imagination is possible under the scarcest of conditions, conditions that can make it impossible to deceive or beguile (others or oneself). It is a book as glass house reversed, where the person walking by can see all the way in, but the person inside can’t see halfway out—and yet the person inside has made this house. Perhaps because of the danger to the writer’s life that would result from any direct address to the Apparatus, the writer will have to commandeer the Apparatus’ own terms of ‘neutrality’ to forge a secret path and get word (past the Apparatus) into the right hands. As though she, a language worker, under the watchful eye of the Apparatus, has been forced to create these daily logs, to send news to the other world that all is ok. So she must be careful what she says and what she doesn’t; so she does her job, and yet leaves clues throughout: all is not ok.

160 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2024

About the author

Poet, vocalist and performer Valerie Hsiung is the author of three full-length poetry collections: efg (exchange following and gene flow): a trilogy (Action Books, forthcoming 2016), incantation inarticulate (O Balthazar Press, 2013) and under your face (O Balthazar Press, 2013). Her writing can be found or is forthcoming in places such as American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, New Delta Review, PEN Poetry Series, Prelude, RealPoetik and VOLT, among others. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hsiung spent significant portions of her childhood in Las Vegas, received a BA from Brown University and is now based out of Brooklyn, New York, where she works as a love detective and matchmaker. She is also an editor for Poor Claudia.

Reviews

[Emma Jade Larsson-Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I come across a book that captures a season of life I’m in as well as The Naif captures my life right now. Valerie Hsiung is a mastermind, this is so beautifully written. I’ve underlined more of it than I’ve left not underlined. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed dragging out my reading of a book to this extent, but after reading a bit of it, every time I felt like I had to take a few days to think and reflect and probably cry a little. I will be thinking about this book for years to come.

[Noah]

very nice

[Brian Alarcon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intensely beautiful to get through

[Nanaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a weird book that’s written in a unique way. You can tell she’s a poet. There’s a lot of inverting words and play on words. There’s introspection going on about community and people.