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The Evolutionary Revolution
Fiction. What if evolution was decided by committee and revolution by mere chance? What if man was a subspecies? What if man, as a subspecies, was woman, with tiny red wings on her thighs and pasted shut eyes? What if she flew in the sky or slept on the moon, and what if the earth was a saltless water world filled with forgetful, vengeful two-headed mermen? Welcome to THE EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION, a fabulist story of sense-making for the 21st century. In this twinning tale of freak shows and prophets, tract homes and impending doom, award-winning author Lily Hoang collapses time and narrative into a brilliant novel of beginnings and ends, where sentences undo each other and opposites don't cancel each other out. As Anna Joy Springer notes in the book's introduction, "In literature, as sometimes in life, it's a scary kind of fun to be manipulated by a pretty girl, who changes the game on a whim."
246 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2010
About the author
Lily Hoang
42 books121 followersLily Hoang's first book, PARABOLA, won the Chiasmus Press Un-Doing the Novel Contest. She is also the author of the forthcoming novels CHANGING (Fairy Tale Review Press, Dec. 2008) and THE EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION (Les Figues Press, 2009-10). She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of English & Women's Studies at Saint Mary's College in Indiana."
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 29, 2015
Crazily, luminously, scandalously imaginative
February 10, 2017
Did not finish because I was forced against my will to read this for class and then discuss this mess of a book in a way that can only be described as: torturous.
June 14, 2010
As an admitted follower of Lily Hoang's already admirable body of work, young as it is but growing at an almost obscenely prolific pace, the expectations I approach each new work with have yet to be disappointed.
One of the most intriguing aspects of her work is the way in which her authorial tone from book to book manages to evolve and shift as one might hope it would while retaining similarities in confidence, intelligence and whimsy that never let the reader forget Hoang's presence behind the scenes. There's an ever-present slyness and impression of trickery, the execution of which is brilliant in that Hoang manages to walk the line between solely emphasizing the performance itself or that behind-the-scenes finesse; both are important, and the sense of play always gives way to a cohesive focus and momentum that leaves no doubt as to how seriously one should take the themes of the book. The word 'whimsy' seems to be one I always cling to when pondering Hoang's works, but it does feel a bit imprecise as I don't feel it communicates the proper weight of this book, as well as her others. While Hoang indeed seems to have mastered this kind of playfulness reminiscent of the classic fairy tales, I don't feel I can emphasize enough how well she pushes this playfulness toward something larger and arguably more lasting; let there be no mistake when questioning how much intellectual stunt work is going on in this novel.
To me, the most enjoyable element in 'The Evolutionary Revolution' is the constant, open-ended criticisms of memory and nostalgia, the way we (as a person, as a society, as a culture, as a nation, etc.) look backward and interpret not only the past as it stands objectively, but how we even deal with the act of remembering itself, how we question or do not question 'facts' and other types of cultural givens that affect how we interact and behave. There's quite a bit going on here that makes one think about 'where we've come from' on so many levels and in so many voices that the reader will no doubt find herself trying to answer them long after the book ends. This doesn't even scratch the very large surface of Hoang's delving into the nature of stories and fairly tales in particular--where the monsters come from, who has to fight them and how, and why? What makes a hero, if a 'hero' can really exist at all? The power of all of this is the questioning; Hoang seems to stop short of pushing forth too many answers, which to this me allows her to take a place comfortably alongside the reader rather than some place above, a trait I admire quite a bit.
My only qualm with the book is in not feeling certain how to feel about the rather overt, 'preachy' messages regarding issues such as global warming. If these are indeed as 'preachy' as they seem at times, I think this is a bit disappointing and something I think the book could have / should have been better than putting forth. If they were intended to be more self-conscious, I probably would have liked them to be more clearly so, and to play with that in a larger and more complex way. Overall there were small places I felt the book could have been slimmed a bit, a few sections that wandered perhaps a bit too far into an awkwardness that seemed slightly too aimless, but these were few and far between. The quirks here nearly always create the appropriate space for themselves and never use up any credit they haven't earned.
This book, like the rest of Hoang's books is certainly worth your pennies, and more importantly your time.
One of the most intriguing aspects of her work is the way in which her authorial tone from book to book manages to evolve and shift as one might hope it would while retaining similarities in confidence, intelligence and whimsy that never let the reader forget Hoang's presence behind the scenes. There's an ever-present slyness and impression of trickery, the execution of which is brilliant in that Hoang manages to walk the line between solely emphasizing the performance itself or that behind-the-scenes finesse; both are important, and the sense of play always gives way to a cohesive focus and momentum that leaves no doubt as to how seriously one should take the themes of the book. The word 'whimsy' seems to be one I always cling to when pondering Hoang's works, but it does feel a bit imprecise as I don't feel it communicates the proper weight of this book, as well as her others. While Hoang indeed seems to have mastered this kind of playfulness reminiscent of the classic fairy tales, I don't feel I can emphasize enough how well she pushes this playfulness toward something larger and arguably more lasting; let there be no mistake when questioning how much intellectual stunt work is going on in this novel.
To me, the most enjoyable element in 'The Evolutionary Revolution' is the constant, open-ended criticisms of memory and nostalgia, the way we (as a person, as a society, as a culture, as a nation, etc.) look backward and interpret not only the past as it stands objectively, but how we even deal with the act of remembering itself, how we question or do not question 'facts' and other types of cultural givens that affect how we interact and behave. There's quite a bit going on here that makes one think about 'where we've come from' on so many levels and in so many voices that the reader will no doubt find herself trying to answer them long after the book ends. This doesn't even scratch the very large surface of Hoang's delving into the nature of stories and fairly tales in particular--where the monsters come from, who has to fight them and how, and why? What makes a hero, if a 'hero' can really exist at all? The power of all of this is the questioning; Hoang seems to stop short of pushing forth too many answers, which to this me allows her to take a place comfortably alongside the reader rather than some place above, a trait I admire quite a bit.
My only qualm with the book is in not feeling certain how to feel about the rather overt, 'preachy' messages regarding issues such as global warming. If these are indeed as 'preachy' as they seem at times, I think this is a bit disappointing and something I think the book could have / should have been better than putting forth. If they were intended to be more self-conscious, I probably would have liked them to be more clearly so, and to play with that in a larger and more complex way. Overall there were small places I felt the book could have been slimmed a bit, a few sections that wandered perhaps a bit too far into an awkwardness that seemed slightly too aimless, but these were few and far between. The quirks here nearly always create the appropriate space for themselves and never use up any credit they haven't earned.
This book, like the rest of Hoang's books is certainly worth your pennies, and more importantly your time.
September 11, 2017
Is this a novel? It feels strange to call it that. If it's not a novel, Lily Hoang has definitely produced an imaginative spiral of lucid dreaming and untethered weirdness. Using the tenor and language of ancient myth, Hoang crafts a new origin story for mankind, one in which the world began as sky and sea alone: man, originally created female, flew in the air, while vengeful two-headed mermen lived in the sea. The origin story is woven in with a narrative that supposedly takes place in the present, a quest involving two formerly conjoined twins, each imprisoned in a labyrinth, each seeking out a mysterious object that could save (or destroy?) the world. There are also characters who can manipulate minds, stop time, and bring people back to life, as well as, occasionally, a godlike collective narrator that refers to itself as the Evolution Council, which makes evolutionary decisions by committee. Amazingly, it's all weirder than it sounds.
Over and over again, Hoang fragments the conventions of storytelling and meaning making. The very moment things begin to feel familiar is when the narrative veers off into the weeds and comes back with something completely unexpected. There are only a few moments toward the end where it seems Hoang is trying to work in an ecocritical theme, overtly referencing global warming, caring for the earth, etc. Those moments lack a necessary irony and land heavy. If Hoang was attempting to ground the story in more materialist concerns, I appreciate that impulse, but it doesn't quite work here.
Overall, this one is not for everybody. Readers with more traditional narrative tastes might have little patience for it. But if you're interested in a challenging, genre-bending read, I'd recommend this to anyone with an eye toward the experimental.
Over and over again, Hoang fragments the conventions of storytelling and meaning making. The very moment things begin to feel familiar is when the narrative veers off into the weeds and comes back with something completely unexpected. There are only a few moments toward the end where it seems Hoang is trying to work in an ecocritical theme, overtly referencing global warming, caring for the earth, etc. Those moments lack a necessary irony and land heavy. If Hoang was attempting to ground the story in more materialist concerns, I appreciate that impulse, but it doesn't quite work here.
Overall, this one is not for everybody. Readers with more traditional narrative tastes might have little patience for it. But if you're interested in a challenging, genre-bending read, I'd recommend this to anyone with an eye toward the experimental.
November 25, 2024
Super intriguing, wanted a better executed ending.
August 19, 2011
This book's dedication page reads: "For Karl & utopias." One can speculate endlessly about which Karl is indicated here, but I can't help thinking of Marx and his revolutionary ideas about man's estrangement from self. Lily Hoang reimagines this all-too-human alienation as a bodily separation from one's own twin (previously conjoined in an earlier evolutionary state), along with various other atavistic hauntings stemming from vestigial appendages, lost senses, or an ancient, underlying instinct about one's own magical difference. Told through a network of intricately interwoven micro-chapters, this epic tale gets stranger & stranger as you progress through it and come to a growing understanding that the greatest progress offered by a revolution might lie behind you, that the most hopeful future depends on long-lost purities from the apocryphal past. Hoang's style is as unapologetically contemporary as it is solemnly mythic, creating an intriguingly unplaceable, timeless reading experience. There are echoes here of the ecological vision of Hayao Miyazaki and the pubescent feminine heroism of Henry Darger's Vivian girls. This is definitely a realm of the unreal that is still recognizably real in its allegory.
The Evolutionary Revolution is part of the Trenchart series by Les Figues Press, which has also published many other excellent titles. Each Trenchart title is tall & slim in format, features work by a contemporary visual artist on its back cover, and includes an introductory essay written by a contemporary critic. The intro essays are always thoughtful & enlightening, though I recommend that you read them only after finishing the text of the book proper if you don't like spoilers.
The Evolutionary Revolution is part of the Trenchart series by Les Figues Press, which has also published many other excellent titles. Each Trenchart title is tall & slim in format, features work by a contemporary visual artist on its back cover, and includes an introductory essay written by a contemporary critic. The intro essays are always thoughtful & enlightening, though I recommend that you read them only after finishing the text of the book proper if you don't like spoilers.
October 10, 2010
This is a book about evolution, about a failed evolutionary revolution, and in a layering deftly handled by one of the new queens of fairy tale play, the text itself also evolves and the language is used for revolt: "A long time ago, long before man walked upright, the earth was filled with water. It was a sphere of pure ocean. During this era, man flew in the atmosphere with tiny wings attached to her thighs. Back then, man as a sub-species was kind." There are plenty of books that sturdily house a story within a story within a story but Lily Hoang has taken it upon herself to evolve this conceptual foundation, making her stories in The Evolutionary Revolution the stories of the stories inside the stories told by the stories to break the stories and build new stories. This is, to put it mildly, a book that is doing something masterful and glorious...[read the rest of this review in The Collagist: http://www.dzancbooks.org/the-collagi... ]
November 4, 2010
A combination of myth-making and fabulism, hurt by the predominant use of general, abstract language over concrete imagery. As a result, the "timeless" quality of myths and fables is lost. Hoang seems to be more caught up in the *idea* of her story than the specifics of time, place, and character, as if what we have here is a detailed outline of a story minus the details that make stories palpable and memorable.
July 29, 2016
Imaginative, but ultimately, I think, a bit trite in its vision. I was hooked in the beginning & then became disenchanted. Best when involved with its characters: the Sylphs & the Henkelmeyers. Tedious when it goes on and on about the Imperial Council, the Evolution Council & the Evolutionary Revolution. Reads as if the author made it up as she went along, rather than having a plan. Not a bad approach in & of itself, but in this case, the result isn't altogether satisfying.
May 20, 2014
Inventive, striking, original and thought provoking, this is a book I would recommend to anyone who is interested in myth and meaning, and, especially, in gender equality conversations. That being said, a lot of the conversations feel half finished, not as explored as they could be (or as they had been in Hoang's previous work), and there is a feeling, in the end, that this isn't what it could or should be.
June 17, 2018
Interesting as a concept, perhaps even intriguing, but executed poorly; the end product is a confusing mess that oscillates between being utterly nonsensical without a reason to be nonsensical and overly heavy-handed. I walked away wishing it was better.
August 1, 2010
Read my review of this book at Newpages.com:
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2...
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/2...
September 8, 2011
I am incredibly excited that Lily Hoang will be reading in Tuscaloosa AL tomorrow night. And that I get to interview her the next morning. Excited and daunted. And nervous.
September 8, 2011
My favorite Lily Hoang book to date. Layered, vivid, complex. Excellent version of a creation story.
February 12, 2012
Really wonderful stuff in here about creation, myth, twinning, solitude, the unconscious & storytelling. Plus compelling, fast-paced narrative, & playful.
June 4, 2016
Loved this!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews