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Slow Hot
SCHISM Press presents SLOW HOT
What if love could save you but also kill you? That is the riddle at the heart of this iconoclastic, playful, prismatic debut novel. In Slow Hot our world is remade and revealed in what is almost like a firefly opera—brilliant flashes in the dark spelling out Choi's vision of what America both is and could become—a placeless empire committed to war at any cost, where survival requires of you something you may never be able to provide. And yet this is offered in a profound and even gentle way. We learn, in the process, the consolations of a vision with no false hopes.
~ Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh
The principal narratives of Slow Hot intersect, contrast and complement one another like the panels in an intricate silk bojagi. Shards of text depicting our digital alienation and oversaturated connectivity in the age of apocalypse cut into a young Korean’s journey home, the ghosts he encounters there, the shamanistic reinvention of his queer voice in the oppressive sweat of a subtropical forest. Like the invasive species he mentions, from Asia to North America, Choi vividly captures not only a sense of transpacific longing, but the need to belong on a more elemental level, so that whichever direction he takes us all we can do is marvel at what he creates along the way and thank him most profusely for the trip, for the refuge it gave us.
~ Gary J Shipley, author of Warewolff!
What if love could save you but also kill you? That is the riddle at the heart of this iconoclastic, playful, prismatic debut novel. In Slow Hot our world is remade and revealed in what is almost like a firefly opera—brilliant flashes in the dark spelling out Choi's vision of what America both is and could become—a placeless empire committed to war at any cost, where survival requires of you something you may never be able to provide. And yet this is offered in a profound and even gentle way. We learn, in the process, the consolations of a vision with no false hopes.
~ Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh
The principal narratives of Slow Hot intersect, contrast and complement one another like the panels in an intricate silk bojagi. Shards of text depicting our digital alienation and oversaturated connectivity in the age of apocalypse cut into a young Korean’s journey home, the ghosts he encounters there, the shamanistic reinvention of his queer voice in the oppressive sweat of a subtropical forest. Like the invasive species he mentions, from Asia to North America, Choi vividly captures not only a sense of transpacific longing, but the need to belong on a more elemental level, so that whichever direction he takes us all we can do is marvel at what he creates along the way and thank him most profusely for the trip, for the refuge it gave us.
~ Gary J Shipley, author of Warewolff!
Paperback
Published July 5, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 4, 2022
A student lent this book to me to read because they thought I would like it and they were right! Super fun, explosive, imaginary, & genre bending. Narrative was a little hard to follow but I understood that that was the "point." Great read!
January 28, 2022
the weirdest and funniest novel i’ve read in a long time. Choi effortlessly builds a multiverse of not-so-far off post-apocalyptic futures, which subtly interact with each other and intertwine themselves into a wild ride fueled by quirky, spastic offshoots. while the plot keeps you on the edge of your seat, with each move becoming progressively unpredictable, Choi writes in a unifying voice, both cynical and hopeful, and the most distinct and relatable of our generation.
December 4, 2023
i reread this book again and it was incredible! i was rereading my old review just right now and i was so horrified by how art student-y it was 🤦 i really need to get over myself. this was amazing. i loved the prose style and the stylized, collage-like feeling of the story. it was so dreamy, and haunting, and incredibly incredibly creative. i take back everything i ever said about this book; it’s amazing. i think the vague sense of dissatisfaction i received at the end of the book was because it ended at all!!! hoping deeply that another one like this (or similar to it) is written; the writing style is just gorgeous.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews