Paper Teeth

This hit-or-miss debut collection of 10 interrelated stories framed as items on “Today’s Menu” (with title tie-ins such as “Number 117. Almond Guy Ding” and “Number 19. Egg Drop Soup”) focuses on the Lee family’s experience of race and interpersonal dynamics in Alberta during the 1960s and ’70s. Covering familiar family history topics such as the quarrelsome family car vacation or the obligatory, mother-led Sunday pilgrimage to church, the author innovates with sarcastic, pointed, or meditative square bracket note asides, such as “[Note: God knows how the epicanthal fold can put a hitch in some people’s giddy-up]”. One of the strongest stories, “Number 1. A Bowl of Rice, A Plate of Sliced Oranges,” juxtaposes the telling of a long-ago family episode with adult Janie Lee’s anxious or brusque attitudes about her family’s past and her own understandings of racialized identity. Chow highlights both the significance of family history and the evolving roles that race played (particularly via direct or indirect racism) in the lives of the Lees over the decades. Two weaker stories describe a minor family event from the points of view of all five family members, which makes the stories longer but does not compensate for the slightness of the episodes themselves. (Sept.)