A fractal fable about the possibility and power of protest as told by three superheroes on their lunch break
In a small Midwestern town, two Asian American boys bond over their outcast status and a mutual love of comic books. Meanwhile, in an alternative or perhaps future universe, a team of superheroes ponders modern society during their time off. Between black-ops missions and rescuing hostages, they swap stories of artistic malaise and muse on the seemingly inescapable grip of market economics.
Gleefully toying with the conventions of the novel, Dear Cyborgs weaves together the story of a friendship's dissolution with a provocative and lively meditation on protest. Through a series of linked monologues, a surprising cast of characters explores narratives of resistance―protest art, eco-terrorists, Occupy squatters, pyromaniacal militants―and the extent to which any of these can truly withstand the pragmatic demands of contemporary capitalism. All the while, a mysterious cybernetic book of clairvoyance beckons, and trusted allies start to disappear.
Playfully blending comic-book villains with cultural critiques, Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs is a fleet-footed literary exploration of power, friendship, and creativity that recalls authors like Tom McCarthy and Valeria Luiselli. Ambitious and knowing, it braids together hard-boiled detective pulps, subversive philosophy, and Hollywood chase scenes, unfolding like the composites and revelations of a dream.
About the Author :
Eugene Lim is the author of several novels, including Fog & Car and The Strangers. His writing has appeared in Fence, the Denver Quarterly, Little Star, Dazed, the Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. He is the founder and managing editor of Ellipsis Press and works as a librarian in a high school. He lives in Queens, New York.
Feodor Chin, an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator, is an actor classically trained at the American Conservatory Theater and UCLA. His acting career includes numerous credits in film, television, theater, and voice-over.
Review :
"Dear Cyborgs is a...fan letter to comicdom and a chastening reminder of how America's greatest fantasy doesn't involve superheroes with superpowers but the prospect of a fair and honest political life. Go read it in the streets."
-- "Joshua Cohen, author of Book of Numbers"
"A colorful meditation on friendship and creation nested within a fictional universe."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Brilliant in its blending of academic investigation and pop-culture tropes and structurally invigorating from start to finish."
-- "Midwest Independent Booksellers Association"
"Eerily reflective of our fractured times, darting from subject to subject with the speed of a mouse click. A colorful meditation on friendship and creation nested within a fictional universe."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Eugene Lim tells his sly superhero tales in a kind of hard-boiled deadpan...an echo of every comic-book reader's yearning for the camaraderie of the super team, the intimate enmity of the nemesis."
-- "Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes"
"Sings the tune of language itself, music that Gertrude Stein and Gordon Lish could get behind."
-- "Virginia Quarterly Review"
"Smart, inventive, highly unconventional."
-- "BuzzFeed"
"Surreal, unpredictable, and filled with protest. Lim packs an impressive range of topics into one slim and absorbing novel; everything from comic books to the avant garde to revolution gets its due."
-- "Vogue"
"Two radically different story lines...are cleverly tied together in this short, sly, unorthodox novel."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
"Wondrous...He has a knack for making everyday life seem strange--or, in the case of Dear Cyborgs, for making revolution seem like the most natural thing possible. His writing is transfixing from page to page."
-- "New Yorker"
