ISSUE 58: Lisa Ko
And their latest novel "Memory Piece."
THE YELLOW PAGES is a newsletter recommending Asian films, music, writing, and other inspiration — all the artsy things I wished for growing up!
I couldn’t be more excited for this month’s issue with Lisa Ko, who I’ve known since college. We lived together our sophomore year with eight other people — a tiny apartment complex where we ate a lot of couscous with tomato sauce. (Or maybe that was just me.) Besides our alma mater, Lisa and I are both from New Jersey, and have many of the same childhood references — so reading their latest novel Memory Piece was particularly fun for me:
In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. "Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves," they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet's early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.
Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.
Lisa’s first novel, The Leavers, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. They’re obviously incredibly accomplished, but I’ll never forget how impressed I was when I found out they once won a fiction contest for Sassy magazine — sponsored by Always maxi pads!!!!!
Name/Pronouns
Lisa Ko, she/they.
Where are you?
NYC.
What do you do?
I’m a writer.
How do you identify?
Asian American, Chinese Filipino, New Yorker.
Anything coming up you’d like to promote?
My second novel, MEMORY PIECE, just came out in March - it’s a very Asian American story that follows three friends, a performance artist, a tech coder, and a housing activist, from the 1980s (when they first meet as kids in Chinese school) to the 2040s.
And some fun book-themed throwback playlists on my Spotify:
8 Things (Mostly Books) I’ve Been Into Lately
Poetry: Fady Joudah, […] — Everything Joudah writes is worth reading and his sixth collection is out now!
Short Stories: Sejal Shah, How to Make Your Mother Cry — Eleven linked short stories, “gleaming with memory and myth.”
Novel: Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost — I read this last year and am still thinking about its portrayal of making art under occupation.
Memoir: Lamya H, Hijab Butch Blues — A queer coming-of-age memoir in essays.
Perfumes: Tanaïs — I’m a big fan of Tanaïs’s work and love these thoughtfully made fragrances.
Graphic Novel: Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, Roaming — A perfectly rendered story of youth and friendship
Visual Art: WangShui: “From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances” — A mesmerizing video piece with that slowwww camera drone moving through the Hong Kong high-rises.
Snack: Dried mangos, for that ideal texture/flavor combo.
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