GOBLIN FRUIT

Chan's dreamy, nostalgic debut story collection draws out the experience of growing up Asian-American in Southern California. A number of the pieces deal with loss and mourning; the obscure young Asian actor in the title story reflects on his failing career while replaying the death of his brother, a child movie star who perished during a helicopter crash while shooting a film. "Open Circles" follows a boy as he watches his brother drift into mental illness, while the narrator of "Falling" recalls blissfully aimless high school afternoons he spent with his best friend, a reckless and vaguely self-destructive boy who vanished several years later and is now rumored to be dead. Elsewhere, Chan is more lighthearted: "Mystery Boy" turns a young boy's memories of his days as an imaginary childhood sleuth into a poignant ode to the era of boy detectives in young adult literature. "Brilliant Disguise" is a tongue-in-cheek coming-of-age yarn about a boy who tries to escape the publicity stemming from his father's career as a cartoonish professional wrestler. Chan produces some luminous passages, capturing the golden haze that swaths childhood memories—even only moderately happy ones. His best characters and premises are appealingly quirky, but some stories simply fall flat, burdened by overly obvious plot trajectories and character descriptions (Jon, the boy who disappears in "Falling," would "get eyestrain staring at the ghostly figure captured standing on the balcony on the cover photo of the Hotel California album, wondering how it got there"). Chan is a promising newcomer, but he has yet to find a consistent, sure voice. (Jan. 6)