Prelude: & Other Stories

by Grace Kwan

This collection of short stories transports the reader to the sizzling heat of Kuala Lumpur’s streets, to crimson sunsets at Vancouver’s bayside, and to the drizzly shores at Bible camp. The narrator, a young Chinese-Malaysian-Canadian girl, grapples with a simultaneously claustrophobic and distant relationship with her mother as she navigates her own teenage obstinacy, queer identity in the face of religion, and the universal pursuit of fitting in.

108 pages, Paperback

Published May 18, 2020

About the author

Grace Kwan is a Malaysian-born sociologist and writer raised in “Vancouver,” the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. A Best New Poets 2024 nominee, their first full-length book THE SACRED HEART MOTEL is out from Metonymy Press November 2024. Find them at grckwn.com.

Reviews

[Vicky Again]

Prelude & Other Short Stories was a lovely collection of short stories about a bisexual Chinese-Malaysian girl who moves from Kuala Lumpur to Vancouver when she is young. It ranges from quick, delightful stories you breeze through to more serious explorations of the narrator's life.

You're always left wondering how much is real and how much is fiction, but the stories resonate regardless. From stressful memories surrounding piano practice to lip-biting situations of discussing queerness, Prelude crafts a memory-like collection that's sometimes hazy, but sometimes startlingly stark in how sharp certain details are.

I'd definitely recommend if you want a personal and quick collection of vignettes that are rooted in experience and character.

Content Warnings: eating disorders, complicated parental relationship (throws a shoe at daughter), anti-immigrant sentiments, racism, homophobia

(A quick note: in case you weren't sure by my lack of rating, I don't usually rate memoirs, autobiographies, or nonfiction. Please ignore the rating box when reading my review.)

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, simple book of fictionalized memories / personalized stories chronicling Kwan's childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood in Kuala Lumpur early on and then in Vancouver.

These reminded me of Ivan Coyote's writing, in their focus on the everyday, small details and moments, and their down-to-earth quality. There's also queer content (bisexual specifically, and coming out in a Christian family). Anti-Asian racism in Vancouver gets the spotlight too. Some of my favourite moments were with her mom, and their sometimes fraught but strong connection.

I think I'd have preferred these in past tense rather than the present tense they're told in. It would suit the kitchen table storytelling style more.

Check this out if you're looking for more queer Can Lit set in Vancouver, especially if you're interested in a bi Chinese-Malaysian-Canadian perspective.

[Dante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace’s writing has a nice amount of detail that makes the world she's writing about feel very grounded, real and lived-in. Small details, like the condensation on iced coffee, that most people would not notice specifically but definitely invoke the feelings of the environment that's meant to be portrayed. This makes reading this book sentence-by-sentence to be very enjoyable and gripping. but the overarching plot to these stories are also compelling. They will either be relatable to you or give you a new perspective. The moments that are meant to be tense will make you feel tense, the ones meant to be infuriating will make you angry, the ones meant to be calming will make you feel relaxed. Overall excellently written and does what it is meant to do very well.

[haha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prelude and Other Stories quickly became one of my favourite books of the year! The writing style alone will make you fall in love with this book. The authors way of describing everything is a perfect example of how to be descriptive without being boring, from talking about the weather to the small details in her surroundings she manages to transport you into the scene you’re reading.

Every time I read a chapter about her as a child it just made me feel soft!! Like in chapters Prelude and Delphine! I especially loved two chapters, Joey’s Interlude, and A Tomboys’s Aria. It’s hard choosing favourites because all of them showed you a different side of the authors life and none of the chapters were dull.

I loved the way the author talked about Bisexuality and the small interactions with others like her asking her friend “Who would you date if you were a boy”. Those two chapters (A Tomboy’s Aria and Lakeside Bible Camp) but especially Lakeside Bible Camp really showed the confusion, or denial maybe, that queer kids have in an environment where they’re being told that being gay is wrong and unnatural.

The book dealt with issues such as racism, sexuality, immigration, and family in a way where it didn’t feel overwhelming but it was still emotional and moving. I just loved the book and writing and stories and just everything about it and can’t wait to read Grace’s next book!!!

[Kasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet and beautifully written little collection of stories about growing up. Ok, it goes a bit deeper than that, and I loved each little story and insight into Grace’s life. She writes each chapter to focus on one or two main ideas in her growing up. Her writing is beautiful and I enjoyed this little read.