Cranesong

by Rona Wang

This book is out of print.

Half Mystic Press’ debut short story collection is, above all, a bright thing. Cranesong explores the trauma that haunts our bones, the echoes that infuse our language—and, at the same time, lingers inside wild wind, consumes the cartography of longing, interrogates all the colors piano music can hold. These stories pinwheel from realm to realm—some fantastical, some deeply modern, and some settling somewhere in between. Yet there is an ancestral lineage that braids them together. These characters don't exist in the same world, but if they did, perhaps they'd recognize each other.

Genres: Short Stories

83 pages, Paperback

First published February 13, 2019

Reviews

[Yingying · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author Rona Wang has been plagiarizing fellow Chinese American women writers since 2015, as chronicled in the document embedded in this tweet thread – https://twitter.com/disappntdwriter/s...

The document is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p...

Much of her published work, including works she has won monetary prizes for, have plagiarized her peer writers. Some of it bears similarities down to word choice, sentence structure, and character names. Other examples show eerily similar storylines. Wang was a Pitch wars mentor and had access to unpublished manuscripts, which are much harder to protect. Her agent P. Moore and editor at S&S have not spoken out on this matter as of Friday February 26. Rona deactivated her Twitter when the thread went up and has not taken responsibility for her actions. Please do not support her book until she owns up to her mistakes and proves that her book contains ONLY original content.

[Stephanie Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't even begin to describe all of the ways that these stories have moved me and made my heart soar. Rona Wang has a gift for words, making the magical mundane enough to relate to while making the mundane magical. There is an element of distanced realism in each of her stories - whether fact or fiction, Wang writes each story as a unique experience but allows you as the reader into it to empathize with the characters and their feelings. If I had to pick favorites from this collection, it would have to be a tie between "Style" and "The Art of Acceptance."

The lyrical prose and the musicality of Wang's language bring a fresh kind of heart to already captivating stories. There is a thread of longing that connects each story in this collection, through grief and love and freedom and epiphany. I teared up multiple times while reading these, my heart clenching a bit tighter after each story as I soaked in the lives of these characters and how their stories resonated with mine in ways I didn't know existed. Rona Wang is a treasure, and her words both lift and heal my soul. I'm so glad to have read this collection, and like always, cannot wait to read even more by this author in the future.

[Sarah Perchikoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare occasions when I don't know how to start a review. Cranesong is almost indescribable in how beautiful, nostalgic, sad, and melancholic it is all at once. The nine short stories in this book evoke almost every feeling I can think of and yet, you still want to keep reading despite some of them making you feel like your soul is being ripped out.

Cranesong starts off with "Style." A story of K-pop and shoplifting and makeup and teenage relationships (two teenage girls in this case) and potential. It begins as just two girls at the mall but ends with a twist I should have been expecting but didn't. It left me gutted but I would also read it 5 more times. I don't know if "Style" is my favorite because the scenario and the feelings it evokes are so familiar to me or because Rona Wang's writing just calls to a part of me that I haven't looked at in a while. Or both. Probably both.

The whole book feels like poetry but if you have an aversion to poetry for whatever reason, I think you'll still love it. It reads like poetry because the words she writes with are so beautiful. Yes, they are stories, but the way Rona puts the words together makes these stories feel like more. Like art. Like a painting that stops you in your tracks.

The stories range from being about the lives and feeling of girls to Japanese internment to life in a small village. But no matter what story you're reading, there is always some form of trauma in it. Whether it is a dead woman, a dead lover, a boy beaten, a lost friend, or a lost opportunity for something more, there is a part of each story that took a piece of my heart with it. And good stories always do that for me.

Cranesong is an exploration of intense emotion and I loved every minute of it. It's a book you read and then sit with for a while just so you can process the feelings each story brings up. I am giving Cranesong 5 out of 5 stars. If you like literary fiction, prose poetry, or just beautiful writing, you need to check out this collection of short stories.

Cranesong by Rona Wang comes out February 13, 2019.

Thank you to Half Mystic Press and Topaz Winters for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Ri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was completely captured by this collection of short stories and that’s rare for me. Cranesong took me by surprise when I reached the end of the book and wanted more from Rona. You see, Alyssa Wong and Seanan Mcguire are two writers I admire and Rona’s writing reminded me of a beautiful blend of those writing styles.

Cranesong is filled with unapologetic voices from characters who are unafraid to tell their stories as they are. There are stories of aching for home, yearning to belong, and anger in grief and trauma.

“Education is all we FOBs have in this country with its fire-mouthed politicians and slack-jawed crowds who will devour us if we’re not sharp enough.”

— Liv, Liv, Lipstick Liar, Cranesong

There are stories of friendship, family, love, and hope. Whether it was a contemporary story, magical realism, or fantasy, Rona was able to get to the heart of loss, growing up, race, and sexuality.

I loved that each story was from a character of Chinese descent because I was further able to relate to them as a South East Asian living in North America. The Evolution of Wings, one of my favourite stories, resonated with me strongly.

“I felt less real than these girls who had mothers and church on Sundays and last names that teachers could pronounce. I was a silkscreen silhouette with an accent I couldn’t unhook from my teeth.”

“I wondered if the sparrows had forgotten their names, their families, their past lives. I wondered if they still remembered how to speak in their first languages, or if those words had been etched away by the incessant chirping. I wondered if they still searched for home, a light smudged on the endless horizon.”

— The Evolution of Wings, Cranesong

Cranesong is a collection that deserves a spot on every shelf. Rona’s lyrical writing, distinct with sharp notes and gentle touches, is the perfect voice for stories that mark us deeply.

[LT · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel very lucky to know Rona and to have her as someone I can look up to. Rona is a beautiful writer with an incredible voice. In Cranesong, she captured the Chinese-American experience and brought light to queer sexuality - a rare and noteworthy intersection.

It feels great to find your narrative in print, and that's what I enjoyed the most about this book. Computer science is "the cliché major everyone [is] doing." "You're so basic your pH level is 14" is an insult that would have made me smile. "My mother at least had been obsessed with the idea of me...her daughter was a high school senior, bound for college in Boston next year, full-ride, yes she was pre-med, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a doctor in the family?" A conversation I've overheard many times.

I liked "Style," "Seeking," and "The Art of Acceptance," probably "Seeking" the most. I liked the way Rona juxtaposed the double life that the narrator was living. Returning home on her Thanksgiving break, home became foreign. Her one-word responses to her parents' questions about college are not enough to cover the extent of what she is experiencing, and her parents will never fully understand. She does not expect them to.

I also liked thinking about this book from the perspective of craft - it was interesting to read in the Acknowledgements section where each of these pieces originated. I haven't written fiction in a long time, but I'm starting to appreciate again the freedom that fiction affords. Maybe I'll try it out sometime soon.

[Kait | sixcrowsbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my full review on my blog, Kaitlyn's Cozy Reading Corner!

Actual Rating:
5/5 stars

I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

There so many ways that books are classified. There are science fiction books, mysteries, fiction, non-fiction, and African American literature, which are books written by African American authors. While there isn’t a need to classify books based on the author’s race or ethnicity, many of the books published have featured white protagonists, which excludes so many people from seeing themselves represented in books. Recently, however, there has been an outpour of books with a protagonist of color. Some of those books rely heavily on stereotypes, such as drugs or violence, to build the characters. Cranesong is not one of those books.
Cranesong by Rona Wang is composed of nine short stories, all of which feature a protagonist of Chinese descent. Rona Wang puts a unique perspective of racial identity in each of characters. There aren’t sweeping declarations about racism or large moments of racist remarks or actions, but instead tells the stories of young women trying to make their way in the world, and dealing with microaggressions and assumptions that occur so often that the characters already know how they’re being perceived, such as Liv in “Liv, Liv, Lipstick Liar.” The main character, Liv, meets a girl in her class named Kelli, who hears her mainland accent and sees her moon-yolk face, and asks if Liv completed the summer homework. Wang writes, “I know how this goes so I hand my notebook over to her and she scribbles down all my answers. Her pen strokes are blue, smooth, thin, like the capillaries of maps.” In Cranesong, the characters aren’t fighting against a larger injustice, they’re trying to find a space for themselves while enduring entirely raw, human emotions.
Identity is a huge theme throughout the book. The characters look forward to the future, and back to the past, looking to childhood and traditions. In “Dissonance,” the main character, Natalie, is an aspiring first-chair violinist, who is faced with doubt when the newest member of the orchestra may threaten her chances of becoming first chair. The protagonists search for validation by curating the perfect Instagram aesthetics and swipe right on Tinder. Wang offers a rebuttal against the stereotypes that people of Chinese descent are the best at everything, and shows two girls trying to find a sense of belonging by being liked by someone else. There’s an underlying sense that people of color need to earn other peoples’ approval, and Rona Wang identifies that ingrained desire in people through these characters. In their own ways, the characters are defying the stereotypes assigned to them and searching for people to validate a different aspect of their being.
Identity and beauty are intertwined, and Rona Wang dances with the intricate web of the two. In “Style,” Kitty envies her beautiful best friend. The girls shoplift makeup from Sephora and cheat on Physics tests until a sudden tragedy changes everything. Kitty, who was planning to go the pre-med track at Northwestern, spirals down into the sordid world of catfishing men on Tinder, and scamming them for money so she could see her best friend’s favorite band’s concert. Kitty’s identity was entangled in her best friends, and once that changes, Kitty has to figure out who she is and figure out for herself if beauty is only skin-deep. In “Seeking,” a college girl struggles to find the young girl that she used to be in the woman that she is and the woman that her parents want her to be. She ignores emails from older men, instead trying to find the stuffed animals that loved as a child that her parents have gotten rid of. Wang navigates the search for innocence at such a confusing time with such pungent contrasts.
Each story is written with lyrical prose it’s more like the author is singing a collection of melancholy songs. It is hard to believe that this is Rona Wang’s first book. There’s such wisdom and grace to her words that it’s hard to believe she’s a first-time author, though she has published her fanfiction online. Cranesong is not a light-hearted book. It won’t necessarily make one laugh, but it’ll leave more questions in its wake. It’s full of intricacies and emotions that anyone, regardless of skin color, can relate to. It’s one of those books that upon closing the back cover, needs to be sat with for a while and processed, but it’s undoubtedly one of those books that will be remembered.

[Hannah (Ink & Myths) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank Rona Wang, for writing a collection of short stories as powerful as this one, as well as the publisher, Half Mystic Press, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The idea of short stories has always fascinated me — as someone who reads mostly full-length novels, I could never quite imagine that a story that’s only as long as the first chapter in your usual novel could move me in the same way as a book of 400 pages. Well. After reading Cranesong, I can certainly say that only because a story doesn’t fill as many pages or isn’t told in as many words, it doesn’t mean that it can’t still make the reader feel just as deeply.

The stories found between the pages of Cransesong are a blend of things: contemporary and everyday life stories turn into tales that are generations old; some stories seem almost mythological at times, while others are mixed with magical realism elements; even the modern stories seem to be filled with some kind of magic. One of my favourite stories in Cranesong and one that I cannot stop thinking about is "The Evolution of Wings"; it’s brimming with longing for a home that you feel is not yours anymore. One quote that especially stuck with me is this one:

“I wondered if the sparrows had forgotten their names, their families, their past lives. I wondered if they still remembered how to speak in their first languages, or if those words had been etched away by the incessant chirping. I wondered if they still searched for home, a light smudged on the endless horizon.”

Rona Wang’s writing is all sharp edges and honesty. While reading, I felt almost uneasy, because I’m used to soft words full of colour, used to reading about a world that’s sugarcoated and much kinder than reality — it was strange to come across someone who writes about the ugly things, too.

Themes among the stories of Cranesong are just as different as the characters it’s made out of. “Home” seems to be a major theme; I caught glimpses of it throughout many of the stories. Leaving home and coming back. Finding a place to call home — or missing just that, feeling an emptiness where the warmth of welcoming arms should be. Another theme the stories in this collection seem to share is this: an ache, a feeling of not belonging and, at the same time, the desperate desire to do just that. A world in which white is the default, a world that refuses to accept people it labels as different, the hostility of people who behave cruelly just because they know they won’t be held responsible. Some of the stories were terrifying in the way they portrayed all the ugly things humans do to each other on a daily basis.

“But right then, in the rain, we kept laughing, the sweetest birdsong nobody could ever steal from us.”

But between all that, Rona Wang weaves in hopeful intervals: small acts of kindness, friendship and love. So many moments of not giving in, of being brave despite it all. Of the possibility that if there isn’t yet a place you belong in, you have, inside yourself, the ability to create a whole world that’s meant to hold you. With her words, Rona manages to clear out a space filled will light, even among all the darkness, and I think that’s incredibly powerful.

Overall, Cranesong is a collection made out of various stories, told through characters that all have something incredibly unique about them — and yet, ever story carries a feeling with it that binds this collection together, every character is resilient in ways that match the strength of the others. This creates a feeling of intense hope that manages to stay predominant even throughout all the devastating things that happen. And through it all, there is a melody, almost like a song:

“Music was different when the notes lived inside of a soul instead of around it.”

[Sakshi J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is an ode to the feeling of not knowing what belonging feels like. Here is an ode to home.

Rona Wang's Cranesong, Half Mystic Press’ debut short story collection is, described as, "above all, a bright thing. Cranesong explores the trauma that haunts our bones, the echoes that infuse our language—and, at the same time, lingers inside wild wind, consumes the cartography of longing, interrogates all the colors piano music can hold. These stories pinwheel from realm to realm—some fantastical, some deeply modern, and some settling somewhere in between. Yet there is an ancestral lineage that braids them together. These characters don't exist in the same world, but if they did, perhaps they'd recognize each other."

In this collection of short stories, Wang talks about what it means to be Asian in America; a constant struggle to fit in while navigating adolescence, sexuality, and loss. She uses contemporary stories of everyday living mixed with stories that seem to have been passed through generation, adding a sense of mysticism to it all. That, added with her absolutely gorgeous prose, makes for a beautiful read.

The theme that hits me the most is the one about feeling like you don't belong; one of finding a home, or coming back to it. Through the stories, we see Wang talk about what living in America as an Asian is like, and how every character has fought their own battles to belong, and yet some of them never have. A lot of us go through similar feelings on an everyday basis, whether it be because of race, class, religion, certain likes and dislikes etc.

The story "The Evolution of Wings" hit me rather hard, with the lines-"I held my breath for years, waiting, always waiting, but never felt bright crackling underneath my skin, never woke up with a mouth filled with feathers....Eventually, I could no longer hum the melodies of Mama’s lullabies, the jasmine-tea songs that made me yearn for places I’d never been and people I’d never met. Even Mandarin bled off my tongue. When I said home in English, I felt the word reverberate on my lips, but it clattered like all hollow things do."

Rona Wang laces themes that would cause one discomfort with her lyrical prose and presents it in a way that is palatable, as well as enjoyable to read. The overall darkness of the collection leaves you with a slight ache, that's almost pleasant and a feeling of having found a little piece of home within her words.

I'm not too big on short stories, but i most definitely enjoyed this collection.

[Ann Zhao]

i really liked this when i first read it. so disappointed to hear about the author’s serial plagiarism.

[Mackenzie (mackenziespocket) · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTC

[Stromanthe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author plagiarized peer writers. See: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p....