Neotenica

by Joon Oluchi Lee

Neotenica is a novel of casual sex, arranged-marriage dates, cops, rowdy teenagers, lawyers, a Sapphic flirtation, a rival, a child, and two important dogs. At the center of it are Young Ae, a Korean-born ballet dancer turned PhD student, and her husband, a Korean-American male who inhabits an interior femininity, neither transgender nor homosexual, but a strong, visceral femininity nonetheless. This novel is an adrenaline filled ride sliding across the surface of desire and chance through the quotidian turned playful.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Novella, Gay, Literary Fiction, Adult

106 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2020

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this slim book when it won this year's Lambda Literary Award in the category of gay fiction, which is kind of odd in that none of the main characters are actually gay, but I guess that designation was predicated on the author's own identity. Aside from its brevity, the other selling point for me is that it takes place in the SF Bay Area, of which I myself am a native.

I wouldn't really call it a novel either, since it is comprised of seven short stories that are interconnected, and center around an unconventional couple of Korean heritage, presented somewhat non-chronologically. Few of the titles for each section make obvious sense - but that is also kind of intriguing. Anyway, I very much enjoyed this quick read - the author's prose is effortlessly readable, and I intend to scope out his earlier works as well.

For those interested, this is an interesting interview with the author: https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2020/0....

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neotenica is a short take on the fluidity of relationships and sexuality.

Young Ae and her husband find themselves together after both opting for an arranged marriage. The husband calls himself straight but enjoys having sex with men, and he is completely open and unashamed about this with his wife. Young Ae doesn't like men but wants a husband so the arrangement is perfect for her. What follows is a weaving together of the various forms the relationships between these two and others unfolds, and Joon Oluchi Lee proves that it is possible to gold multiple contradictory sexual and relational urges.

A quick take that leaves you wanting a bit more, Neotenica is a fine book and the writing paints a beautiful picture.

[Noa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neotenica is a delightful and fluid experimental novella centered on an arranged marriage of two Korean Americans in the Bay Area, Young Ae and her nameless husband, with queer flirtations and entanglements. There are a few shifts in point of view and time that can come off a bit jarring, but the smart prose and arch character studies more than make up for these. The interlinked vignettes add up to more than their parts, and upon finishing the book (in one sitting) I was surprised given its short length to consider the rich dimensions of its portraits of motherhood, friendship, marriage, casual sex, and dogs. Recommended for fans of Justin Chin, Douglas Martin, or Pamela Lu.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is *great* and hard to describe: It focuses on ex-ballerina Young Ae, Young Ae's husband, their casual sex partners, and two dogs. The mood is quietly intense and the writing is somehow both seedy and sparkling: thick, frank, startling descriptions presented with a combination of penetrating humaneness and droll alienation. Definitely in the vein of New Narrative. Each chapter is its own singular one-act. I loved this.

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always on the lookout for new queer novels to read and new queer authors to follow, and I'm glad that I decided to comb through the Lambda literary award lists one fine day. I did not have much confidence in the list TBH but I'm discovering that it holds many surprises indeed. This is a novel about a queerish straight couple, and it approaches their story by giving the reader a glimpse of their characters from different perspectives through chance encounters. The prose is really engaging, and I loved how objectified the male protagonist was, and the way he was referred to as Young Ae's husband in a subtle subversion of women being defined by their relation to men. But, given the structure, I felt that the novel became aimless as it progressed and the point gets lost somewhere in the middle of all the shuffling of perspectives. The story gets too detached from the characters and doesn't really invest itself in their arcs, being satisfied with this random mosaic of chapters. It ultimately felt as if I read random entries from their journals and I was ultimately left yearning for more. The blurb says that the male protagonist inhabits an interior femininity, but it did not come through very obviously. Despite these issues, I would still recommend this slim volume (that exactly measures up to 100 pages) because the author has a very interesting voice and it must be heard.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very welcome palette cleanser after my last book. It's more a collection of loosely connected stories, than a novel. The prose is sharp, the characters are slippery and charming, and ready with witty rejoinders and casual sex, and the glimpses of a funkier Bay Area (aaah, the aughts) are deftly sketched.

I don't think the last story worked that well, but it does have some crackling prose:

She had gotten much thinner, and she was fairly thin before. With the black hair, no mouth, black holes for eyes, body that seemed so thin it reminded me of TV static, she looked a little sick. The way she looked made me excited. She was in a totally different movie now than two years earlier, and I wanted to be in that movie with her.

Lee does overreach occasionally, IMO. But there's plenty to enjoy and admire here. I blasted through its 100 pages in a day, and will be looking forward to his next book.

[kathleen]

this book was sooo fun. it moves through moments of desire/pleasure around phd student/former ballerina young ae, her husband, their hookups, their child, their dog

i love this genre of "queer fiction about straight people" lol

i was only unsatisfied because i wished it was longer or that i could spend more time with the characters, but i appreciate what it was trying to do in that it didn't have a strong narrative center

also enjoyed browsing joon oluchi lee's website: https://girlscallmurder.com/

[Aaaaaaaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that feels more like a series of pictures than a book. It's a new, cooler, low budget approach to both mediums. Deep vignettes that are simple in its complexity and self-aware of pretentiousness but choosing it any way. (Kinda like this review.)

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neotenica is delicate and shape shifting and difficult to pin — like a snowflake on the cusp of melting. Lee’s primary object of analysis, in my view, is the erotic, and this brief novella is an archive of erotics outside the bounds of gender/sexual label or relational form.

In a lot of ways, this book speculates on what it means to queerly observe cisheterosexuality, to defamiliarize it, to look under its cashmere and buttons and observe the complexities within: a nominally straight man is confidently feminine, open about his sexual joy among men yet uninterested in the term “gay.” A ballerina understands her genre of embodiment as futile and facile, as a form of restriction tied to gendered expectations, yet her ambivalence — replicated in her lack of interest in her arranged-husband’s sex with other men — gives us one of the most fascinating female characters I’ve ever encountered, an insider to cisheterosexual mores that is not bound nor rejected by them.

Throughout the text, we move between perspectives, with each chapter-vignette organized around some visceral act of relationship: sometimes sex, other times, real and perceived abuse, still more, the formation of new kinship ties. These events form the architecture of astute, subtle observations about societal common sense, and offer readers the ability, through each narrator, to live within the possibility of quiet, queer disruptions. Neotenica is understated but powerful in its destabilizing gestures. I love it.

[channel]

really crushingly sad, i don't know. maybe that's why i was able to read it so easily. i feel distant from everyone, and this didn't make me feel like it was a bad thing. nobody is trying to be cruel but everyone is. are these little moments of pretty pain worth it?

i felt like this got closer than most things to the background misery not of being human but of being surrounded by humans, of coming from humans and having this expectation and congenital drive to associate with them. i'm happiest when I'm alone. there's a pain of being alone, but you can adapt to it. i could, at least.

are there relationships or milieus that aren't just these kaleidoscopes of personal pain? i can accept the notion that I'm just this unusually fragile person.

[Joel R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally read this one start to finish - it’s like Sabrina Carpenter: short, sweet, and profoundly sexual. Plus it’s set in the Bay Area which is dope

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had to explain why I liked this book I honestly wouldn’t know where to start. It’s a super quick read composed of short stories about intertwined relationships centered around a married couple in the Bay Area. Maybe I liked it because the main character is an ex-ballerina PhD candidate or maybe I liked it because it’s very queer and openly explores sexuality/gender in an open-minded and lighthearted manner, your pick :p

[Ada · Rating 1 out of 5]

What fuckery is this. I feel utterly useless.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am living for a novel that is exactly 100 pages in this current era of school stress.

Neotenica was put on my radar after winning the Lambda award against some personal favorites this year, and I had to grab and binge it after seeing it during a hunt for short reads at the library yesterday.

This one reads less like a novel, or even a novella, than like a set of interconnected short stories. Most of the stories are told from the perspective of a young couple Young Ae and Young Ae's (sometimes future) husband. The story deals with the politics of their relationship, their families, their sex lives (with each other and with others), and (in one case) a friendship.

I really liked exploring the founding principle of personal necessity as a reason for marriage, which allows the main characters to grow and grapple with themselves as individuals with a lack of performance for each other. I also loved Lee's beautiful and flowing prose that dips us in and out and back and forth within the narrative voice and perspective of the cast of characters. Also, I am always here for the inclusion of dog content and, for once in the depiction of intermale sex, the broaching of planning around its inherent messiness.

For Readers Of: 100 Boyfriends & Filthy Animals

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't sure if I'd like this at first. The writing style switches between blunt and straightforward and very flowery and artsy. While it is very much a book about sex, the theme of each of these snapshots of Young Ae and her husband's life is moreso just about the relationships they share, not just with lovers but with friends, their dog, and their families. It doesn't even really end either, it's kind of the truest form of "slice of life" in that way. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it but it was certainly a very interesting read.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lushly written novella with chapters that focus on different people who intersect Young Ae and her husband, it felt too smart for me. I could sense intelligent things were happening (is Young Ae’s husband not given a name because he is so out of touch with his identity?) but a lot went over my head. I need to read a thesis about this book.

[Shawn Mooney (Shawn Breathes Books)]

I liked the writing at first, and was led to believe that the story was going to be about non-trans femininity. Sounded intriguing! I’m now at the 70% mark, the story hasn’t started yet, and the writing has gone downhill. I shaln’t continue.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with snapshots of Young Ae and her husband's life. Mainly about queerness and femininity, but also about dogs, jobs, mothers and relationships, it's a quick and beautiful read with brilliant prose.

[BookedByTim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting! The novella format is so under rated. I enjoyed how explicit and queer this was, but wish we spent just a little more time with the two main character’s relationship as that was what was the driving force to me in this short story.

[Amanda Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witty and whimsical with different experiences of queerness.

[Caio Major · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella was a lovely, weird and enigmatic meditation on gender, sexuality, the bay area and dogs. It is not propelled forward by plot, but rather by the beautiful and bizarre word choices and nuanced, vivid illustrations of people who inhabit fluidity of all kinds. I could not get enough of how Lee describes people and especially how he describes their relationships to sex and eroticism. There are descriptive passages in this book that I know will stay with me. It had easily had some of my favorite sex writing that I have read this year.

[Laura Sackton]

I wrote about this book here: https://booksandbakes.substack.com/p/...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up front, I will say that this short collection of short stories is sufficiently pornographic to be inappropriate for children. Nevertheless, the writing is witty, the characters are hilarious, and the adventures of those characters are utterly absorbing. The stories are, I would say, like TV sitcoms in that they seem not to be really about anything, except maybe they reveal a bit of contemporary life in certain corners of the San Francisco Bay Area to a straight-laced oldster like myself. Maybe all style and little content, but if the style is sufficiently artful, that is good enough to reason to read this book.

[bek morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3

Quite similar to Ottessa Moshfegh but with less cynicism.

The plot was pointless yet that seemingly made the book more realistic and striking. The characters at once felt three dimensional and wholly predictable, citing to Lee’s effectiveness in development throughout the novella. Short and simple, the writing was refreshing and current - altering points of view and time in ways that were jarring but effective. Yet Joon Oluchi Lee’s most impressive feat was a conveying of the fluidity of sexuality and the relationships we have with each other.

[Phil Boivin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was interesting. I enjoyed how the book mainly used vignettes to describe the story rather than a linear progression from start to finish. The book is only 100 pages, so it felt vignette-ish as well. I can’t help but wish there was a bit more meat on the bone though. I feel like this would be a 5 star if it were a bit longer and fleshed out. I really did enjoy the read though. I liked the author’s writing style.

[Eileen]

oh i liked this! crystalline prose, witty but not show-offy, pointed (but also somehow very cool) in its selection of characters and scenes. not a novel, not even really a collection of short stories, but there is a pleasurable sense of unity to it. most of the sketches have something to say about desire, sex, and relationships, parasocial ones in particular, but they're not really in-your-face about it and it's kind of up to you whether you want to read that way or not.

[Jordan Morley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slim but don’t take that as east. This book is full of short stories that honestly have no climax. They drift through each vignette which can be deeply frustrating, but I did find it an interesting read. Can a book work without the height of emotion? Yes I believe it can, but that is for you too choose. Pick up it

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

uhhhh..? i don't know what to say about this one. it's bizarre, certainly. there's only the faintest connection holding the chapters together and they're all abstract. the bits and pieces that make up this novella have all been crammed into one picture even when they don't fit. but it's all intentional, which is fun but disorienting.

[Thomas Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky and sweet and sometimes rather funny novella. A marriage of convenience where the reader sees every angle on the couple's sexual proclivities; clashes and meshes of different personalities to create different wholes when combined. I thought it started much stronger than it ended up, but I still enjoyed the ride.

[Ryan T · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful novella that reminds me of an advent calendar full of several vignettes on a variety of subjects. I appreciate when a novel can be so multidimensional , especially at exactly 100 pages. Full of likable characters, great explorations of queerness and relationships, hot sex scenes , and dogs. Fascinating read.