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An Oral History of Atlantis
A deadpan, wildly imaginative collection of stories that slices clean through the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, from the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams
In “Machine City,” a college student’s role in a friend’s movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In “Slide to Unlock,” a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in “Weird Menace,” a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the ’80s that neither seems to remember all that well.
In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these fifteen stories have much to say about the meaning—and transitory nature—of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today.
In “Machine City,” a college student’s role in a friend’s movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In “Slide to Unlock,” a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in “Weird Menace,” a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the ’80s that neither seems to remember all that well.
In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these fifteen stories have much to say about the meaning—and transitory nature—of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today.
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First published July 29, 2025
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About the author
Ed Park
49 books36.2k followersI'm the author of the forthcoming story collection AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS (July 2025)—preorder it now!
My novel SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS (2023) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction and the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature.
My debut novel, PERSONAL DAYS (2008), was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize.
THREE TENSES, my memoir, will be out next year.
What else? I'm a founding editor of THE BELIEVER, and I've written for The Atlantic, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Bookforum, The Baffler, and many other places. (Check out ed-park.com or https://linktr.ee/edpark for some recent pieces.)
NB, I am *not* the author of THE WORLD OF THE OTTER, by the late nature writer Ed Park, but it's worth picking up if you see a copy (and like otters).
My novel SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS (2023) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction and the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature.
My debut novel, PERSONAL DAYS (2008), was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize.
THREE TENSES, my memoir, will be out next year.
What else? I'm a founding editor of THE BELIEVER, and I've written for The Atlantic, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Bookforum, The Baffler, and many other places. (Check out ed-park.com or https://linktr.ee/edpark for some recent pieces.)
NB, I am *not* the author of THE WORLD OF THE OTTER, by the late nature writer Ed Park, but it's worth picking up if you see a copy (and like otters).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 245 reviews
October 31, 2025
i also find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime.
unfortunately i don't agree with the synopsis on this one.
i always try to write mini-reviews for every story when i read a short story collection, but roughly 60% of the time i give up when i find myself writing the same thing every time.
guess what happened with this one.
something about that description and the title and the cover charmed me and made me feel assured this would have a pleasant writing style (who knows why) but instead this felt silly and goofy and over the top.
it did not help me cope with the world.
this tone was pervasive, the same across the stories, which had both the effect of annoying me and of making it difficult to excuse any of the weird and at times horrifically bigoted opinions as being on the part of the narrator and not the author.
bottom line: how whimsical.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
unfortunately i don't agree with the synopsis on this one.
i always try to write mini-reviews for every story when i read a short story collection, but roughly 60% of the time i give up when i find myself writing the same thing every time.
guess what happened with this one.
something about that description and the title and the cover charmed me and made me feel assured this would have a pleasant writing style (who knows why) but instead this felt silly and goofy and over the top.
it did not help me cope with the world.
this tone was pervasive, the same across the stories, which had both the effect of annoying me and of making it difficult to excuse any of the weird and at times horrifically bigoted opinions as being on the part of the narrator and not the author.
bottom line: how whimsical.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
June 13, 2025
The best story collection I ever wrote!
July 29, 2025
Hot on the heels of his Pulitzer Prize-finalist masterwork, Same Bed Different Dreams, Ed Park returns with this superb short fiction collection. Twelve of the sixteen stories have been published elsewhere over the past 20+ years, but all were new to me.
Whether it’s the transcription of a DVD commentary on a cult classic science fiction film (“Weird Menace”) or a letter from an exasperated author to his overzealous translator (“A Note to My Translator”), no two stories are alike. Yet each delivers Park’s acerbic wit, sharp sense of irony, and keen eye for riffing on the mundanities of everyday life. With such variety, every reader is sure to find something to love here.
Favorite stories: “A Note to My Translator,” “The Gift,” “Bring on the Dancing Horses”
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky | Interview with author Ed Park
Whether it’s the transcription of a DVD commentary on a cult classic science fiction film (“Weird Menace”) or a letter from an exasperated author to his overzealous translator (“A Note to My Translator”), no two stories are alike. Yet each delivers Park’s acerbic wit, sharp sense of irony, and keen eye for riffing on the mundanities of everyday life. With such variety, every reader is sure to find something to love here.
Favorite stories: “A Note to My Translator,” “The Gift,” “Bring on the Dancing Horses”
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky | Interview with author Ed Park
July 7, 2025
“…𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦, ‘𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴,’ 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘩é, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩.'"
Major thanks to NetGalley and Random House for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:
After DNF-ing Same Bed Different Dreams and trudging through this collection, I’ve realized that Park is not a novelist nor even a storyteller but a really really good notetaker. Many lines sing, but they don’t fully form a song.
Park is a great writer. Sentences are full of sharp wit and class, localized in that post-MFA New York voice that had time to perfect itself under the helms of The New Yorker and mimicking Dorothy Parker. But that’s all it is. All for show. Plain notes.
Most of these stories just end. Don’t go anywhere. Mostly forgettable. And though they’re a fun time, they’re just as fleeting as the times, and just as fleeting as any good summer with funny lines and lovely people.
All is forgotten, and then we move on.
Mere observations that don’t amount to much.
Major thanks to NetGalley and Random House for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:
After DNF-ing Same Bed Different Dreams and trudging through this collection, I’ve realized that Park is not a novelist nor even a storyteller but a really really good notetaker. Many lines sing, but they don’t fully form a song.
Park is a great writer. Sentences are full of sharp wit and class, localized in that post-MFA New York voice that had time to perfect itself under the helms of The New Yorker and mimicking Dorothy Parker. But that’s all it is. All for show. Plain notes.
Most of these stories just end. Don’t go anywhere. Mostly forgettable. And though they’re a fun time, they’re just as fleeting as the times, and just as fleeting as any good summer with funny lines and lovely people.
All is forgotten, and then we move on.
Mere observations that don’t amount to much.
July 29, 2025
“My girlfriend, Tabby, reviews science fiction for a living, which just goes to show you that America is still the greatest, most useless country in the world.”
If I had to describe my experience reading this short story collection, I would say I felt like the kid in the David After Dentist YouTube video when, coming out of anesthesia, he asked his dad, “Is this real life?” On the other hand, for those who want to tackle Park’s 544-page Pulitzer Prize Fiction finalist book Same Bed Different Dreams, these stories are perfect little amuse-bouches that will develop the palate for the task. In other words, if it needs to be said, Park is an acquired taste. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s like learning a second language. Getting into the rhythm comes with practice, but is worth it.
These stories are weird, quirky and funny satirical glances at life. I chuckled for the first half of the book. The next day, I had trouble finding interest. Maybe that’s down to the southern expression that too much pie is too much pie.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group—Random House and NetGalley for this e-ARC.
May 23, 2025
This collection was sharp, at times hilarious look at the human condition showcasing Park's mastery of language. Some of the stories ended abruptly, either indicating that he didn't have a clear idea of how to wrap it up and didn't want to belabor it or that he'd said all he had to say on the subject and that was that. All in all, I loved his wit and style and will look for more of his work.
July 20, 2025
Goodreads Review – ★★★★★
An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories by Ed Park
What a marvelously strange, achingly human, and endlessly inventive collection this is.
Ed Park's An Oral History of Atlantis is the kind of book that feels like a secret whispered directly to you—then echoes for days in your mind. Each of the sixteen stories thrums with Park’s unmistakable signature: a wit so sharp it could cut glass, a deep empathy that sneaks up on you, and a structural playfulness that never sacrifices emotional resonance for cleverness.
Take “Slide to Unlock,” where a man’s life flashes before his eyes not in images but in forgotten passwords—a concept so absurd and so relatable I had to put the book down just to laugh, and then immediately underline the entire thing. Or “Machine City,” which starts off like a quirky student film story but subtly shifts into something more existential, more uncanny—robotic and all-too-human at once.
The real magic here is that Park never talks down to the reader. These stories trust us to piece together the fragmented, the misremembered, the elliptical. They unfold like half-recalled dreams or found transcripts from a parallel world just adjacent to ours—close enough to recognize, weird enough to make you question your bearings.
And then there's the language. Park writes with a poet’s ear and a stand-up comic’s timing. He can drop a joke, a heartbreak, and a revelation all in the same paragraph, and make each one land. His cultural references are sharp and sly, but never for show. Like the best metafiction, these stories reflect our obsessions—technology, nostalgia, memory, media—but also our tenderest vulnerabilities.
If Same Bed Different Dreams was a kaleidoscopic reinvention of the historical novel, An Oral History of Atlantis is the fictional equivalent of rummaging through a thrift store of consciousness, each item—a mixtape, a script, a chat transcript, a dream journal—glinting with meaning and melancholy.
Park has created a literary multiverse with its own emotional gravity. These stories don’t just entertain—they haunt, heal, and reveal. Read them slowly, or all at once. Either way, you’ll be left marveling at how Ed Park sees the world—and how, through his writing, we can begin to see it too.
Highly recommended for fans of George Saunders, Lydia Davis, Kelly Link, and anyone who's ever looked at their old AIM away messages and wondered: was that me, or a character I was playing?
An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories by Ed Park
What a marvelously strange, achingly human, and endlessly inventive collection this is.
Ed Park's An Oral History of Atlantis is the kind of book that feels like a secret whispered directly to you—then echoes for days in your mind. Each of the sixteen stories thrums with Park’s unmistakable signature: a wit so sharp it could cut glass, a deep empathy that sneaks up on you, and a structural playfulness that never sacrifices emotional resonance for cleverness.
Take “Slide to Unlock,” where a man’s life flashes before his eyes not in images but in forgotten passwords—a concept so absurd and so relatable I had to put the book down just to laugh, and then immediately underline the entire thing. Or “Machine City,” which starts off like a quirky student film story but subtly shifts into something more existential, more uncanny—robotic and all-too-human at once.
The real magic here is that Park never talks down to the reader. These stories trust us to piece together the fragmented, the misremembered, the elliptical. They unfold like half-recalled dreams or found transcripts from a parallel world just adjacent to ours—close enough to recognize, weird enough to make you question your bearings.
And then there's the language. Park writes with a poet’s ear and a stand-up comic’s timing. He can drop a joke, a heartbreak, and a revelation all in the same paragraph, and make each one land. His cultural references are sharp and sly, but never for show. Like the best metafiction, these stories reflect our obsessions—technology, nostalgia, memory, media—but also our tenderest vulnerabilities.
If Same Bed Different Dreams was a kaleidoscopic reinvention of the historical novel, An Oral History of Atlantis is the fictional equivalent of rummaging through a thrift store of consciousness, each item—a mixtape, a script, a chat transcript, a dream journal—glinting with meaning and melancholy.
Park has created a literary multiverse with its own emotional gravity. These stories don’t just entertain—they haunt, heal, and reveal. Read them slowly, or all at once. Either way, you’ll be left marveling at how Ed Park sees the world—and how, through his writing, we can begin to see it too.
Highly recommended for fans of George Saunders, Lydia Davis, Kelly Link, and anyone who's ever looked at their old AIM away messages and wondered: was that me, or a character I was playing?
August 3, 2025
Instant classic. Best collection of short fiction I've read in a long time.
August 27, 2025
2.5 Stars
This started out promising but as I slogged through it, it quickly became apparent that I was losing more and more interest in what I was reading. I am writing this directly after finishing and I can barely recall any of the characters that I just read about.
The writer is clearly very talented, but this book feels too showy, more of a "look how intelligent I am" swagger that makes the reader feel, in all honesty, a little dim-witted. Some of the concepts had promise, but execution was lacking, and too many of the stories just ended with no understanding of why they were ever written in the first place.
Several of the stories were interlinked, with character names mentioned in later stories that were from previous ones. The fleeting mention of them was so obscurely done that you really had to pay attention or you would miss it. As I was reading, when I came upon these character references I would forget which story they were from and who they even were.
The collection did have some promising themes and concepts - many of the stories were centered around writers and writing which kept me reading - but honestly? I really can't think of anything memorable that stood out here for me. Sadly disappointed.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review! Much appreciation.
This started out promising but as I slogged through it, it quickly became apparent that I was losing more and more interest in what I was reading. I am writing this directly after finishing and I can barely recall any of the characters that I just read about.
The writer is clearly very talented, but this book feels too showy, more of a "look how intelligent I am" swagger that makes the reader feel, in all honesty, a little dim-witted. Some of the concepts had promise, but execution was lacking, and too many of the stories just ended with no understanding of why they were ever written in the first place.
Several of the stories were interlinked, with character names mentioned in later stories that were from previous ones. The fleeting mention of them was so obscurely done that you really had to pay attention or you would miss it. As I was reading, when I came upon these character references I would forget which story they were from and who they even were.
The collection did have some promising themes and concepts - many of the stories were centered around writers and writing which kept me reading - but honestly? I really can't think of anything memorable that stood out here for me. Sadly disappointed.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ebook ARC in exchange for my honest review! Much appreciation.
August 9, 2025
To read Ed Park is to experience a true original at work. Everything he does here feels timeless. An Oral History of Atlantis is filled to the brim with this sort of lighthearted, terrifically enjoyable mordancy, then overflows with a deep sense of humanism and humor. I cannot believe we all get to read stories by this person.
The imagination at work here, and the dedication it must take to tame it! To shape these ideas into workable, functional fiction would have been remarkable—and somehow these stories are far more than that: crisp, polished, hilarious, and humane—this is excellence.
I’ve spent a few years away from the short story game. I was in a rut where everything that came to me was corny, dry, or just brashly on-the-nose. It seems like too many collections get put out as money grabs on the coattails of successful (or not) novels. And if that’s something you notice in publishing, it may have been tempting to see this as a short followup to a big, bold Pulitzer finalist novel and skip these—
—this couldn’t be further from the case. An Oral History of Atlantis is a deeply funny, inspired work of pristine originality. I’m so excited to have this book in my hands. Short stories as a whole continue to get less love than they deserve, so here I am loving some of them.
The imagination at work here, and the dedication it must take to tame it! To shape these ideas into workable, functional fiction would have been remarkable—and somehow these stories are far more than that: crisp, polished, hilarious, and humane—this is excellence.
I’ve spent a few years away from the short story game. I was in a rut where everything that came to me was corny, dry, or just brashly on-the-nose. It seems like too many collections get put out as money grabs on the coattails of successful (or not) novels. And if that’s something you notice in publishing, it may have been tempting to see this as a short followup to a big, bold Pulitzer finalist novel and skip these—
—this couldn’t be further from the case. An Oral History of Atlantis is a deeply funny, inspired work of pristine originality. I’m so excited to have this book in my hands. Short stories as a whole continue to get less love than they deserve, so here I am loving some of them.
September 28, 2025
'I thought of the lyrics to “Lithium,” or really just the part where Kurt Cobain sings, “I’m not going to crack.”'
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Took a while to read this, but thought it all to be wonderfully brilliant nonetheless, or at least I very much enjoyed the 'tone' and 'moods', 'vibes' of the 'stories'. All in all, a very worthwhile read, highly recommended.
'The wife on Ambien recites the poetry of T. S. Eliot, sings the music of the Jesus and Mary Chain, calculates how much we need to save to retire. Her figures vary. The wife on Ambien also tells me it doesn’t matter, that the sun will swallow the earth exactly eight billion years, or thirteen weeks, or twenty-four hours from now. The wife on Ambien hails Uber after Uber. The cars stream toward us like a series of sharks. It’s four a.m. Drivers from many countries gather on the corner, fling curses at our window, break out the booze, and promise each other their children in marriage. The wife on Ambien hacks into my Facebook account and leaves slurs on the pages of my enemies. Get a life, you’re a joke. She joins political causes directly opposed to her own. I spend an hour every morning cleaning up the digital trail.'
'The answer lay in the breakage. Would tomorrow’s hunt be successful? Would the rains fall soon? Was everybody really going to die? They recorded the results right on the riven tabulae, with a proliferating vocabulary of symbols: a bolt of lightning, a labyrinth’s futile curl, a vigilant eyeball, and dozens of other icons. To a degree these descriptions are Rorschach, yet one couldn’t help but see in those jottings a pitchfork, or a cat’s ears, or a horned head on a triangular body. (Indeed, the horns came up rather a lot.) Every few days we turned up a new symbol, and one of us would set to work teasing out its meaning. We tried to shed our modern sensibility, with consequently terse results. Even so, there was no guarantee that two of us would read the same line the same way.'
December 13, 2025
NOTE TO MY TRANSLATOR
Dear E.,
Thank you for your letter. We are doing well here...but a few of your queries anent the ongoing translation....
Page two: Why "knickers"? Wherefore "fugitive uranium"? Why not call a spade a spade or, as the case may be, a rubbery bathtub ornament a rubbery bathtub ornament?...
Page eight: The doctrine of transubstantiation has nothing to do with pinball....
Page ten: Only ten pages into my novel and already all seems lost. I no longer recognize characters, points of plot, dialogue. I frankly have no idea what the words before me mean. Here you present a heated argument between two nuns (and are they truly robot nuns?), both of whom speak a weird amalgam of Cantonese and the International Morse Code. Can you help me? Please?
Dear E.,
Thank you for your letter. We are doing well here...but a few of your queries anent the ongoing translation....
Page two: Why "knickers"? Wherefore "fugitive uranium"? Why not call a spade a spade or, as the case may be, a rubbery bathtub ornament a rubbery bathtub ornament?...
Page eight: The doctrine of transubstantiation has nothing to do with pinball....
Page ten: Only ten pages into my novel and already all seems lost. I no longer recognize characters, points of plot, dialogue. I frankly have no idea what the words before me mean. Here you present a heated argument between two nuns (and are they truly robot nuns?), both of whom speak a weird amalgam of Cantonese and the International Morse Code. Can you help me? Please?
December 4, 2025
One of Lit Hub’s 43 Favorite Books of 2025!
Time's The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 selection
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A deadpan, wildly imaginative collection of stories that slices clean through the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, from the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams
In “Machine City,” a college student’s role in a friend’s movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In “Slide to Unlock,” a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in “Weird Menace,” a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the ’80s that neither seems to remember all that well.
In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these sixteen stories have much to say about the meaning—and transitory nature—of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: What I have not highlighted that could make a difference to your pleasure...or not...is something I didn't notice until after I read the whole collection: There seems to be interconnection of settings and/or characters in many of the stories. As these stories have appeared over the course of years, this must reflect Author Park's real interests. It does indeed show. A collection sure to please Park fans and anyone who likes a laugh with their "hmm" sci fi. I mean, who among us does not love "His thoughts were shrouded in rumor, perfumed with adventure and abstruse interlinear controversy" as a quotable quote? One knows one's own.
Comme d'habitude, these sixteen stories will be dealt with by the Bryce Method of general remarks followed by brief responses to each one below.
A Note to My Translator is the funniest takedown of the Culture Industry℠'s bizarre effort to translate the work of an author into a local cultural property, thus causing huge misunderstanding and much ill-will:
Honestly, I've read translations that felt as though they must've been the subject of a correspondence much like this.
It was hilarious to me, and sets an irreverent, mischievous tone I batten on. 5*
Bring on the Dancing Horses's unnamed narrator hit me with "Penumbra College in Vermont" and made me cackle, then his girlfriend's name "Tabitha Grammaticus"...and that housecoat...! Seriously, I'm still trying to sketch it to understand the topology.
The story itself, well, what a sad little incel this guy is, if I didn't know better I'd say he was fever-dreaming it all. You know what...maybe he is. 3.5*
The Wife on Ambien sketches anomie in cold relief as "the wife on Ambien" does things our Prufrockian putz of a narrator would never dare to do, I half expected her to eat a peach for gods' sake. I wished the refrain wasn't quite so Lucy-Ellmanly.
Machine City makes that film-student friend into a last gasp of the end-of-adolescence pretentiousness. Bethany Blanket...sounds like a manic pixie girl, right?...puts "Ed" in her student film requiring him to be honest and natural with the girl he just got broken up with by her also-Korean parents objecting to his ancestry. Now, of course, he's a lawyer with a fancy life thinking about les jadis. Not fascinating but oddly...compelling...familiar maybe. 4*
An Accurate Account proves that drama is easy, comedy is *hard*. A stand-up routine that, for me, was a real misfire...like a less-offensive Matt Rife set. 3*
The Air as Air is elegiac in tone, is the air's testator, is clearly about the processing of profound sadness, grief, loneliness: "The jukebox kicked in. Some song I used to hate, but at the moment it made me sad. It pinned me down."
It pinned down the entire mechanism of gaining, painfully and slowly, perspective. The narrator (PTSD and all) and his father, whom he calls "The Big Man" at the man's insistence:
Sad, funny, unfortunately very relatable...they're not communicating or connecting even a little bit. 4.5*
Seven Women has a therapist elucidating the long and grueling self-confrontation of therapy from her point of view, the way she thinks about the deep-dives into other people's emotions. "Sometimes people tell stories and they leave out the feelings—My job is to show them where the feelings are." 5* for that insight alone...Hannah the patient's a really crappy human being.
The Gift offers me a course I really want to take: "Advanced Aphorism" though not with Dublinski necessarily. The letter to the alumni magazine being written says it was never offered again. I demand a retake on all my school years so I can take this course! Fun wordplay, slight idea. 4*
Watch Your Step is a log-line for a technothriller that feels like it was being fleshed out; as the story progresses, I was trying to think of reasons Author Park left it here, when there's enough, to my story-ear, to support a novella. What gives? 3.5* because it's marooned without coming into port.
Two Laptops does nothing for me because the "man loses family through no fault of his own" trope bugs me. The wife and son he's misplaced live close but...never mind, no point really, as he is reduced to a skype face to the son, I realized he deserved it. 3* for choice of subject matter.
Weird Menace stresses the role memory can't help but play in our relationships to our past, to the people in our lives, and to this weird idea we think is a reality called the self. It's all dialogue, all the time, and all the more fun for that, since I like "Toner Low" as the director's name. DVD commentary was never like this when I was watching horror movies! 4*
Thought and Memory centers transness, but managed to make me wince by leaving in "transgendered" which ain't a good thing. I wish it had not been there like a turd in the punchbowl. Still, a decent and overall surprisingly good effort for someone not trans. 3.5*
Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine, the Sailor and the Wayfarer Sing of Their Absent Sweethearts didn't really excite me much...Tabby doesn't inspire sympathy as she is presented here...and her career is very amusing indeed, but doesn't make up for the sour note of the narrator's overall dissatisfaction, his dislike and disdain for so many around him. "My girlfriend, Tabby, reviews science fiction for a living, which just goes to show you that America is still the greatest, most useless country in the world," sums it up on the tone front; not my fave but very well-written, with some humor that broke through my dissatisfaction. 4*
Eat Pray Click might hit you differently than it did me...my boyfriend is in Chat psychosis so the way the machine comes alive, sort of, and what it does, just did not feel fictional, while feeling mentally disturbing. No rating.
Slide to Unlock might be the most unnerving story in here...almost horror...memory problems scare me leaky. It's a modern problem, trying to keep clear in one's mind the very complicated ways we're required to interface with a world gone digital...in fact, it's not much more complicated than the past, only the medium's changed from speaking to a fallible human to fallibly humanly speaking to a system made by fallible humans. I got the wry humor in here in my bones. 5*
An Oral History of Atlantis isn't so much a story as a proof of concept...every emotional register, every techno-detail, every beat in this collection gets its bones into this stew. What I couldn't find was a through-line to make me invest in it the way MtPR was meant to. 3.25*
Time's The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 selection
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A deadpan, wildly imaginative collection of stories that slices clean through the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, from the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams
In “Machine City,” a college student’s role in a friend’s movie causes lines to blur between his character and his true self. In “Slide to Unlock,” a man comes to terms with his life, via the passwords he struggles to remember in a moment of extremis. And in “Weird Menace,” a director and faded movie star discuss science fiction, memory, and lost loves on a commentary track for a film from the ’80s that neither seems to remember all that well.
In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, characters question the fleetingness of youth and art, reckon with the consequences of the everyday, and find solace in the absurd, the beautiful, and the sublime. Throughout, Park deploys his trademark wit to create a world both strikingly recognizable and delightfully other. All together, these sixteen stories have much to say about the meaning—and transitory nature—of our lives. And they are proof positive that Ed Park is one of the most insightful and imaginative writers working today.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: What I have not highlighted that could make a difference to your pleasure...or not...is something I didn't notice until after I read the whole collection: There seems to be interconnection of settings and/or characters in many of the stories. As these stories have appeared over the course of years, this must reflect Author Park's real interests. It does indeed show. A collection sure to please Park fans and anyone who likes a laugh with their "hmm" sci fi. I mean, who among us does not love "His thoughts were shrouded in rumor, perfumed with adventure and abstruse interlinear controversy" as a quotable quote? One knows one's own.
Comme d'habitude, these sixteen stories will be dealt with by the Bryce Method of general remarks followed by brief responses to each one below.
A Note to My Translator is the funniest takedown of the Culture Industry℠'s bizarre effort to translate the work of an author into a local cultural property, thus causing huge misunderstanding and much ill-will:
Page eight, a little lower down: The doctrine of transubstantiation has nothing to do with pinball.
Page nine: Solomon Eveready reappears, smoking cut-grade reefer and imitating a trout. Explain this to me. Explain also the presence of scuba gear that "reeks of melon."
Honestly, I've read translations that felt as though they must've been the subject of a correspondence much like this.
It was hilarious to me, and sets an irreverent, mischievous tone I batten on. 5*
Bring on the Dancing Horses's unnamed narrator hit me with "Penumbra College in Vermont" and made me cackle, then his girlfriend's name "Tabitha Grammaticus"...and that housecoat...! Seriously, I'm still trying to sketch it to understand the topology.
The story itself, well, what a sad little incel this guy is, if I didn't know better I'd say he was fever-dreaming it all. You know what...maybe he is. 3.5*
The Wife on Ambien sketches anomie in cold relief as "the wife on Ambien" does things our Prufrockian putz of a narrator would never dare to do, I half expected her to eat a peach for gods' sake. I wished the refrain wasn't quite so Lucy-Ellmanly.
The wife on Ambien recites the poetry of T. S. Eliot, sings the music of the Jesus and Mary Chain, calculates how much we need to save to retire. Her figures vary. The wife on Ambien also tells me it doesn’t matter, that the sun will swallow the earth exactly eight billion years, or thirteen weeks, or twenty-four hours from now. The wife on Ambien hails Uber after Uber. The cars stream toward us like a series of sharks. It’s four a.m. Drivers from many countries gather on the corner, fling curses at our window, break out the booze, and promise each other their children in marriage. The wife on Ambien hacks into my Facebook account and leaves slurs on the pages of my enemies. Get a life, you’re a joke. She joins political causes directly opposed to her own. I spend an hour every morning cleaning up the digital trail.3.5*
Machine City makes that film-student friend into a last gasp of the end-of-adolescence pretentiousness. Bethany Blanket...sounds like a manic pixie girl, right?...puts "Ed" in her student film requiring him to be honest and natural with the girl he just got broken up with by her also-Korean parents objecting to his ancestry. Now, of course, he's a lawyer with a fancy life thinking about les jadis. Not fascinating but oddly...compelling...familiar maybe. 4*
An Accurate Account proves that drama is easy, comedy is *hard*. A stand-up routine that, for me, was a real misfire...like a less-offensive Matt Rife set. 3*
The Air as Air is elegiac in tone, is the air's testator, is clearly about the processing of profound sadness, grief, loneliness: "The jukebox kicked in. Some song I used to hate, but at the moment it made me sad. It pinned me down."
It pinned down the entire mechanism of gaining, painfully and slowly, perspective. The narrator (PTSD and all) and his father, whom he calls "The Big Man" at the man's insistence:
"So you know about Uncle Buck," he said.
"The movie?"
"What movie? I’m talking about your Uncle Buck. He went on that show where they give you a makeover. It was Lindy’s idea, the whole stupid TV thing. She has connections. You know Buck. He dresses worse than I do. He dresses like he smeared rubber cement on his chest and rolled around in a pile of undershirts. So they show the episode and it went a little too well, if you get my gist."
Sad, funny, unfortunately very relatable...they're not communicating or connecting even a little bit. 4.5*
Seven Women has a therapist elucidating the long and grueling self-confrontation of therapy from her point of view, the way she thinks about the deep-dives into other people's emotions. "Sometimes people tell stories and they leave out the feelings—My job is to show them where the feelings are." 5* for that insight alone...Hannah the patient's a really crappy human being.
The Gift offers me a course I really want to take: "Advanced Aphorism" though not with Dublinski necessarily. The letter to the alumni magazine being written says it was never offered again. I demand a retake on all my school years so I can take this course! Fun wordplay, slight idea. 4*
Watch Your Step is a log-line for a technothriller that feels like it was being fleshed out; as the story progresses, I was trying to think of reasons Author Park left it here, when there's enough, to my story-ear, to support a novella. What gives? 3.5* because it's marooned without coming into port.
Two Laptops does nothing for me because the "man loses family through no fault of his own" trope bugs me. The wife and son he's misplaced live close but...never mind, no point really, as he is reduced to a skype face to the son, I realized he deserved it. 3* for choice of subject matter.
Weird Menace stresses the role memory can't help but play in our relationships to our past, to the people in our lives, and to this weird idea we think is a reality called the self. It's all dialogue, all the time, and all the more fun for that, since I like "Toner Low" as the director's name. DVD commentary was never like this when I was watching horror movies! 4*
Thought and Memory centers transness, but managed to make me wince by leaving in "transgendered" which ain't a good thing. I wish it had not been there like a turd in the punchbowl. Still, a decent and overall surprisingly good effort for someone not trans. 3.5*
Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine, the Sailor and the Wayfarer Sing of Their Absent Sweethearts didn't really excite me much...Tabby doesn't inspire sympathy as she is presented here...and her career is very amusing indeed, but doesn't make up for the sour note of the narrator's overall dissatisfaction, his dislike and disdain for so many around him. "My girlfriend, Tabby, reviews science fiction for a living, which just goes to show you that America is still the greatest, most useless country in the world," sums it up on the tone front; not my fave but very well-written, with some humor that broke through my dissatisfaction. 4*
Eat Pray Click might hit you differently than it did me...my boyfriend is in Chat psychosis so the way the machine comes alive, sort of, and what it does, just did not feel fictional, while feeling mentally disturbing. No rating.
Slide to Unlock might be the most unnerving story in here...almost horror...memory problems scare me leaky. It's a modern problem, trying to keep clear in one's mind the very complicated ways we're required to interface with a world gone digital...in fact, it's not much more complicated than the past, only the medium's changed from speaking to a fallible human to fallibly humanly speaking to a system made by fallible humans. I got the wry humor in here in my bones. 5*
An Oral History of Atlantis isn't so much a story as a proof of concept...every emotional register, every techno-detail, every beat in this collection gets its bones into this stew. What I couldn't find was a through-line to make me invest in it the way MtPR was meant to. 3.25*
July 29, 2025
A wildly fun and delightfully weird short story collection that plays with form, voice, and structure in all the best ways. The 16 stories in An Oral History of Atlantis each feel like their own little experiments. You’ll find everything from DVD commentary transcripts to fake memoirs to password prompts that somehow turn into emotional breakthroughs. The result is something that’s clever, unexpected, and surprisingly moving.
One follows a man trying to log into old accounts, which becomes a quiet meditation on memory and identity. In another, an actress and a screenwriter go back and forth in side-by-side columns, their voices both funny and deeply human. And there’s one about a wife on Ambien drifting into an existential spiral that’s as absurd as it is sad.
There’s a secret rhythm to the whole collection. Names, places, and little details pop up across stories like Easter eggs. The stories aren’t directly connected, but they feel like they all exist in the same offbeat, emotionally-charged universe. Finishing a few of them, I knew I'd want to return and reread just to see what else I might find.
Some stories are laugh-out-loud funny, some quietly devastating. A few somehow manage both at once. Park captures the weirdness of everyday life while poking at bigger questions about memory, identity, and how we try (and fail) to connect. The writing is sharp, playful, and full of little surprises.
I had such a good time reading this. It felt like discovering a new favorite song or stumbling into the perfect dream.
One follows a man trying to log into old accounts, which becomes a quiet meditation on memory and identity. In another, an actress and a screenwriter go back and forth in side-by-side columns, their voices both funny and deeply human. And there’s one about a wife on Ambien drifting into an existential spiral that’s as absurd as it is sad.
There’s a secret rhythm to the whole collection. Names, places, and little details pop up across stories like Easter eggs. The stories aren’t directly connected, but they feel like they all exist in the same offbeat, emotionally-charged universe. Finishing a few of them, I knew I'd want to return and reread just to see what else I might find.
Some stories are laugh-out-loud funny, some quietly devastating. A few somehow manage both at once. Park captures the weirdness of everyday life while poking at bigger questions about memory, identity, and how we try (and fail) to connect. The writing is sharp, playful, and full of little surprises.
I had such a good time reading this. It felt like discovering a new favorite song or stumbling into the perfect dream.
May 11, 2025
A revelation! Atlantis!
July 22, 2025
…well, at least it made me appreciate the short story collections that i have read and liked!
an oral history of atlantis is ed park’s first publication following his pulitzer-finalist novel same bed, different dreams. i will admit that i haven’t read the novel itself, but i have to assume that it was much, much better than this short story collection. or i just have wildly different tastes from everyone in the pulitzer committee.
in the 16 short stories presented in the slim, 200-page volume, ed park showcases an impressive dedication to what is best described as “self-pitying straight man” fiction. i get the sense that he had things that he wanted to say about contemporary relationships and loneliness, but it was all filtered through such a narrow and intensely misogynistic lens that i had more or less given up on “getting it” after the first handful of stories.
there are two kinds of stories in an oral history of atlantis: stories about straight men who dislike the women in their lives, and stories about lesbians who dislike the women and also the men in their lives. and you might, initially, feel tempted to appreciate that a straight male author took the time to write such a high proportion of his stories about queer women, but no! if you systematically went through the book and changed all of the lesbian narrators into straight men, nothing else about those stories would need to be altered. every wife, girlfriend, coworker, or female acquaintance in the book is either incredibly shallow or so odd and unknowable that it blows the original manic-pixie-dreamgirl archetype out of the water. it’s like reading all of the most misogynistic bits of murakami, but without the parts of murakami’s writing that are actually kind of good.
but women aren’t the only people to receive pretty shitty treatment throughout! fear not, park also uses the m-slur no less than 3 times (possibly more?) to describe the narrator of the last story, who tops out at an impressive 4’11’’.
in truth, i might have liked this 10 or so years ago, back when i still kind of believed that award-winning fiction written by and for men was somehow peak literature. but i just can’t bring myself to care about stories that all center on men who are unhappy with their partners or their parents or their lives, especially when the writing itself is lackluster, the messaging shallow and heavy-handed, and the endings completely and utterly underwhelming.
i am, however, clearly in the minority on pretty much all of my opinions here! at the time that i write this review, only 3 of the other 102 ratings gave this book anything less than 3 stars. i stand pretty firmly by all of the reasons that i have for disliking this particular collection, but if those same things don’t bother you then, who knows, it might be worth a shot.
(for the curious and statistically minded: one 4☆, four 3☆, seven 2☆, and a whopping four 1☆)
thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
an oral history of atlantis is ed park’s first publication following his pulitzer-finalist novel same bed, different dreams. i will admit that i haven’t read the novel itself, but i have to assume that it was much, much better than this short story collection. or i just have wildly different tastes from everyone in the pulitzer committee.
in the 16 short stories presented in the slim, 200-page volume, ed park showcases an impressive dedication to what is best described as “self-pitying straight man” fiction. i get the sense that he had things that he wanted to say about contemporary relationships and loneliness, but it was all filtered through such a narrow and intensely misogynistic lens that i had more or less given up on “getting it” after the first handful of stories.
there are two kinds of stories in an oral history of atlantis: stories about straight men who dislike the women in their lives, and stories about lesbians who dislike the women and also the men in their lives. and you might, initially, feel tempted to appreciate that a straight male author took the time to write such a high proportion of his stories about queer women, but no! if you systematically went through the book and changed all of the lesbian narrators into straight men, nothing else about those stories would need to be altered. every wife, girlfriend, coworker, or female acquaintance in the book is either incredibly shallow or so odd and unknowable that it blows the original manic-pixie-dreamgirl archetype out of the water. it’s like reading all of the most misogynistic bits of murakami, but without the parts of murakami’s writing that are actually kind of good.
but women aren’t the only people to receive pretty shitty treatment throughout! fear not, park also uses the m-slur no less than 3 times (possibly more?) to describe the narrator of the last story, who tops out at an impressive 4’11’’.
in truth, i might have liked this 10 or so years ago, back when i still kind of believed that award-winning fiction written by and for men was somehow peak literature. but i just can’t bring myself to care about stories that all center on men who are unhappy with their partners or their parents or their lives, especially when the writing itself is lackluster, the messaging shallow and heavy-handed, and the endings completely and utterly underwhelming.
i am, however, clearly in the minority on pretty much all of my opinions here! at the time that i write this review, only 3 of the other 102 ratings gave this book anything less than 3 stars. i stand pretty firmly by all of the reasons that i have for disliking this particular collection, but if those same things don’t bother you then, who knows, it might be worth a shot.
(for the curious and statistically minded: one 4☆, four 3☆, seven 2☆, and a whopping four 1☆)
thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
July 5, 2025
An Oral History of Atlantis is the first book I have read by Ed Park but it won't be the last. I can't wait to read more of this excellent author.
The book is a collection of short stories which I found very funny, with flashes of brilliance and some phrases that stood out because they were so perfectly expressive of the human experience and/or the experiences of the characters.
The stories are consistently good (not always the case in collections) and very funny, sometimes sardonic (as in the case of a spy who is weighing the skills of another spy who is just beginning and failing--Park displays the double vision of what the narrator says to the newbie and what they are actually thinking--and planning to do.
Another story stood out because of the technical skills, the craft of it. A formerly famous (or perhaps semi-famous) celebrity/actress is being interviewed by a somewhat dubiously skilled screenwriter, reminiscing on what sounds like an awful film they made together. The narrative bounces between two columns and struck me as having a kind of resonance between the two voices, a rhythm, almost a musicality alongside down to earth--even. inarticulate--voices trying to communicate--and mostly missing the mark.
I also loved a story in which a man's relationship with his wife is described through the language of passwords and their permutations.
And alongside the humor, there is substance. The humor is bolstered by some serious reflection of who we are as we try to make sense of the world and our lives.
I hope everyone will discover for themselves the delightful talent of Park and enjoy
Many of the stories are written in the first person.
I am grateful to Random House Publishers, NetGalley, and the author for an advance copy of this e-book.
An Oral History of Atlantis will be published on July 29, 2025 by Random House
The book is a collection of short stories which I found very funny, with flashes of brilliance and some phrases that stood out because they were so perfectly expressive of the human experience and/or the experiences of the characters.
The stories are consistently good (not always the case in collections) and very funny, sometimes sardonic (as in the case of a spy who is weighing the skills of another spy who is just beginning and failing--Park displays the double vision of what the narrator says to the newbie and what they are actually thinking--and planning to do.
Another story stood out because of the technical skills, the craft of it. A formerly famous (or perhaps semi-famous) celebrity/actress is being interviewed by a somewhat dubiously skilled screenwriter, reminiscing on what sounds like an awful film they made together. The narrative bounces between two columns and struck me as having a kind of resonance between the two voices, a rhythm, almost a musicality alongside down to earth--even. inarticulate--voices trying to communicate--and mostly missing the mark.
I also loved a story in which a man's relationship with his wife is described through the language of passwords and their permutations.
And alongside the humor, there is substance. The humor is bolstered by some serious reflection of who we are as we try to make sense of the world and our lives.
I hope everyone will discover for themselves the delightful talent of Park and enjoy
Many of the stories are written in the first person.
I am grateful to Random House Publishers, NetGalley, and the author for an advance copy of this e-book.
An Oral History of Atlantis will be published on July 29, 2025 by Random House
June 7, 2025
Sharp, fast and mostly very funny stories. I can't really discern a common theme, although movies, writing, college years come back a lot. And many of the stories end a little too abruptly, but all of them are original and superbly written.
Already on the first page I was laughing out loud, as an author is angry at his translator for taking too many liberties:
"The novel begins with a hailing of the muse and a quick history of man’s moral awakening, mastery of his surroundings, and subsequent fall from grace. In my version. In your version, a man named Mr. Henry enters a flat in London and discovers that his wife is taking stomach medication."
My favourite was 'Machine City', about a student inadvertently ending up as an actor in a movie.
I am now very curious about Ed Park's novel 'Same Bed Different Dreams'.
Thanks to Random House for the advance copy!
Already on the first page I was laughing out loud, as an author is angry at his translator for taking too many liberties:
"The novel begins with a hailing of the muse and a quick history of man’s moral awakening, mastery of his surroundings, and subsequent fall from grace. In my version. In your version, a man named Mr. Henry enters a flat in London and discovers that his wife is taking stomach medication."
My favourite was 'Machine City', about a student inadvertently ending up as an actor in a movie.
I am now very curious about Ed Park's novel 'Same Bed Different Dreams'.
Thanks to Random House for the advance copy!
2025
October 2, 2025ANHPI TBR
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Random House
📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Random House
July 30, 2025
Happy pub day, Park.
I enjoy Park’s handling of speculative fiction in this set of short stories. He subtly displays his digestion and dexterous utilization of simple themes or ideas, presenting some them in a refreshing way. For example, he reimagines the Kindle’s function in “Eat Pray Click”: the AI software assembles well-known literary works, including pieces of Rolph’s (a character in the story) fiction writing, based on the reader’s preferences and habits, thereby creating a consequential living organism.
Park routinely dusts his stories with clever humor (and satire at times) without over-drenching them to a cheapening effect. I wouldn’t mind if he layered on the speculative—in the critiques or plots as such—more heavily, which I did not think in his novel, Same Bed Different Dreams (sorry for the sparse review; I could not keep up in Park’s Pulitzer finalist). Here, I appreciate the author’s use of various forms, such as the recording of a movie’s commentary track in “Weird Menace.”
The inclusions in the second half are stronger; the first half took me a minute to get through. My three favorites out of sixteen short stories (and some of them quite short at that) are “Watch Your Step,” “Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine,” and “Slide to Unlock.” “Slide to Unlock” may be put forth as an example of why short stories deserve our attention. If Park wants to develop “Watch Your Step” into a longer spy thriller (or give us another, more approachable spy thriller), I’m down. An honorable mention should go to “A Note to My Translator”—a solid opener. The collection’s namesake (title track?) went over my head, but it’s smart of Park to show us his capable maneuvering through distinct tones.
My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC.
I enjoy Park’s handling of speculative fiction in this set of short stories. He subtly displays his digestion and dexterous utilization of simple themes or ideas, presenting some them in a refreshing way. For example, he reimagines the Kindle’s function in “Eat Pray Click”: the AI software assembles well-known literary works, including pieces of Rolph’s (a character in the story) fiction writing, based on the reader’s preferences and habits, thereby creating a consequential living organism.
Park routinely dusts his stories with clever humor (and satire at times) without over-drenching them to a cheapening effect. I wouldn’t mind if he layered on the speculative—in the critiques or plots as such—more heavily, which I did not think in his novel, Same Bed Different Dreams (sorry for the sparse review; I could not keep up in Park’s Pulitzer finalist). Here, I appreciate the author’s use of various forms, such as the recording of a movie’s commentary track in “Weird Menace.”
The inclusions in the second half are stronger; the first half took me a minute to get through. My three favorites out of sixteen short stories (and some of them quite short at that) are “Watch Your Step,” “Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine,” and “Slide to Unlock.” “Slide to Unlock” may be put forth as an example of why short stories deserve our attention. If Park wants to develop “Watch Your Step” into a longer spy thriller (or give us another, more approachable spy thriller), I’m down. An honorable mention should go to “A Note to My Translator”—a solid opener. The collection’s namesake (title track?) went over my head, but it’s smart of Park to show us his capable maneuvering through distinct tones.
My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC.
June 10, 2025
3.5 stars
This is an intriguing collection of short stories that live up to their name. I really enjoyed how succinct these were. This made the collection particularly readable. The tradeoff is that the reader may be left wanting a little more development at times, but overall, these will keep audiences engaged.
These may run a little "artistic" or "literary" for some, but more experienced readers will appreciate the techniques and choices here.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Will Lyman at Random House / Hogarth / Dial for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
This is an intriguing collection of short stories that live up to their name. I really enjoyed how succinct these were. This made the collection particularly readable. The tradeoff is that the reader may be left wanting a little more development at times, but overall, these will keep audiences engaged.
These may run a little "artistic" or "literary" for some, but more experienced readers will appreciate the techniques and choices here.
*Special thanks to NetGalley and Will Lyman at Random House / Hogarth / Dial for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
July 22, 2025
An Oral History of Atlantis is an amusing, vaguely experimental short story collection. Ed Park plays with form and content with some stories more firmly grounded in reality than others.
My favorites were "A Note to my Translator," "The Wife on Ambien," "Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine..." and "Slide to Unlock"." Each of these had a sharp style to them, whereas some of the others felt more like unfinished ideas. I liked the writing on a sentence-level, but found the collection as a whole a bit forgettable.
This collection will work well for people who appreciate a blend of the mundane with the surreal in their short stories.
My favorites were "A Note to my Translator," "The Wife on Ambien," "Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine..." and "Slide to Unlock"." Each of these had a sharp style to them, whereas some of the others felt more like unfinished ideas. I liked the writing on a sentence-level, but found the collection as a whole a bit forgettable.
This collection will work well for people who appreciate a blend of the mundane with the surreal in their short stories.
dnf
November 6, 2025DNF: I picked this book up thinking it was a novel written like an oral history of Atlantis, so I was really disappointed to find out that it’s just short story collection where one of the stories has that title.
I just didn’t like the vibe of these stories. They seem like a collection of stories that don’t really say or mean anything and that’s the point, which is fine but I don’t really enjoy those. I might just be missing out on something but I’m not interested enough to re-read any of the stories or to push through the rest of the book. I only got to page 42 so I’m not going to leave a rating.
Date Stopped: 11/06/25
I just didn’t like the vibe of these stories. They seem like a collection of stories that don’t really say or mean anything and that’s the point, which is fine but I don’t really enjoy those. I might just be missing out on something but I’m not interested enough to re-read any of the stories or to push through the rest of the book. I only got to page 42 so I’m not going to leave a rating.
Date Stopped: 11/06/25
May 21, 2025
I really liked some stories, didn't care for others, so made it a middle rating of a 3. The author is definitely a very talented writer - when these worked, they really worked for me. They just didn't all grab my attention. I did love the atmosphere and vibe of the overall collection. My favorites were Bring on the Dancing Horses, Machine City, and The Gift.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.
September 8, 2025
An enjoyable collection of short stories. The collection itself was very smart and witty, enjoyable to read. How can we grow in the future, by looking at our past? Also, loved how it focused on how we perceive vs the difference in reality. I would love to read this one again.
Thank you Random House for an advanced copy of this book.
Thank you Random House for an advanced copy of this book.
September 8, 2025
Sparkling! A collection full of whimsy and unexpected delights.
January 27, 2025
Ed Park is a uniquely imaginative and masterful writer. My introduction to his work, like many readers, was the wild, prize-winning "Same Bed, Different Dreams" -- a mind-blowing labyrinth of a novel that I had to reread, in sections, multiple times. The historical background was enlightening and beautifully utilized as the backdrop to the elaborate story (along with the most creative forms of mixed media).
Therefore, I had no doubt, when I requested this forthcoming story collection, that it would be a wonderful experience. I was not disappointed.
A few of the stories, including the first, are flat-out hilarious and with the lead-off story being written in borrowed form (as a letter) ”A Note to My Translator” it felt like embarking on a fun adventure. I was instantly tuned in and ready to read on. And I couldn’t help but feel this story contained some kernels of actual experience mixed into the obvious hyperbole.
My favorite stories in the collection had a touch of the surreal and Park’s trademark humor (sometimes clever, at other times zany). Like many of my favorite collections, small details reappear throughout different stories (like little easter eggs) and that always feels like a gift for paying close attention. I love when writers take the time and care to include gems like these.
My favorite story within the collection was “The Air as Air” which was rich with metaphor, humor, and deep aching emotion. This was a story I read twice.
“The jukebox kicked in. Some song I used to hate, but at the moment it made me sad. It pinned me down.”
I found all of the stories compelling and a few were simply outstanding. Park’s writing is straight up relatable in so many ways. In "Seven Women" a psychoanalyst explains, when asked, what it is that she does: “’Sometimes people tell stories and they leave out the feelings – My job is to show them where the feelings are.’” Just brilliant.
One magical element of the story included an algorithmic Kindle that vibes readers reactions in real time and continuously meets their reading interests and expectations (Eat, Pray, Click) and in another a favorite professor mysteriously receives a fortune cookie with the murky yet straightforward message “It is what it is.” This sentiment comes into play on a few occasions within the collection.
Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of this amazing collection – on shelves 7/29/2025. A must-read story collection.
Therefore, I had no doubt, when I requested this forthcoming story collection, that it would be a wonderful experience. I was not disappointed.
A few of the stories, including the first, are flat-out hilarious and with the lead-off story being written in borrowed form (as a letter) ”A Note to My Translator” it felt like embarking on a fun adventure. I was instantly tuned in and ready to read on. And I couldn’t help but feel this story contained some kernels of actual experience mixed into the obvious hyperbole.
My favorite stories in the collection had a touch of the surreal and Park’s trademark humor (sometimes clever, at other times zany). Like many of my favorite collections, small details reappear throughout different stories (like little easter eggs) and that always feels like a gift for paying close attention. I love when writers take the time and care to include gems like these.
My favorite story within the collection was “The Air as Air” which was rich with metaphor, humor, and deep aching emotion. This was a story I read twice.
“The jukebox kicked in. Some song I used to hate, but at the moment it made me sad. It pinned me down.”
I found all of the stories compelling and a few were simply outstanding. Park’s writing is straight up relatable in so many ways. In "Seven Women" a psychoanalyst explains, when asked, what it is that she does: “’Sometimes people tell stories and they leave out the feelings – My job is to show them where the feelings are.’” Just brilliant.
One magical element of the story included an algorithmic Kindle that vibes readers reactions in real time and continuously meets their reading interests and expectations (Eat, Pray, Click) and in another a favorite professor mysteriously receives a fortune cookie with the murky yet straightforward message “It is what it is.” This sentiment comes into play on a few occasions within the collection.
Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of this amazing collection – on shelves 7/29/2025. A must-read story collection.
May 15, 2025
A deceptively charming collection of short stories centered around writing and identity. A good short story should succinctly depict the character of the protagonist, establish the setting immediately, and see how they interact. Park is a master of this. His usually befuddled main characters complain to their translators about the rewriting of their novels; try to support their ABD girlfriend who reviews terrible sci-fi novels; or find out who their real father is through an email. Park writes extremely natural description and dialogue perfect suited to the character at hand. I enjoyed these little stories much more than I was expecting. Highly recommended for writers and readers alike.
August 28, 2025
You’re telling me literature can be funny?
October 26, 2025
Picked it up after seeing a review of it on NYT, realized I’m not the audience. I felt dumb reading this and had a difficult time finishing this lol. I don’t think I’m sophisticated enough to enjoy the intricacies of the stories. Like really, it’s a book for writers. There are bunch of literary techniques to learn from reading no doubt. I was impressed by the prose and how contexts and settings are painted, but as soon as the characters started talking, I lost interest because they feel so… out of touch with reality? Yeah, maybe that’s the point, but with how the stories take places in real settings, it just feels juxtaposed with how much I can’t relate to any of the characters because most of them speak like old literature professors. But to be fair, I guess most of the characters are actually writers. Personally I just couldn’t follow much of the stories, and tbh also could so heavily tell that a man had written the characters.
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