20 Oct / Search History by Eugene Lim [in Shelf Awareness]
For audiences in search of a quick slender read, Eugene Lim’s surreally quirky Search History is not it. The pre-prologue to the prologue opens as “A Warning to the Reader” with various cautions and enlightenments; 152 dense pages later, gratification awaits. The story features a late Korean American pianist-turned-gamer named Frank Exit and his drone aficionado narrator friend, who becomes convinced that a stranger’s dog named Izzy (short for Izanami) is actually Frank’s reincarnation. Curiosity begets theft; multiple chases ensue. The narrator and dog-Frank’s owner, Donna, need answers, which will require finding Donna’s widowed birthmother, who’s trying to skyrocket to the moon. Meanwhile, narrative layers multiply, highlighting hybrid identity, Korean motherhood, and all manner of relationships.
Interwoven into this elusive quest are ruminations on the literary – as compiled by “Cyborgian writing teams” programmed “to write An. Award. Winning. Book.” Their dysthymic AI scientist-creator, who’s also a Stanford-educated community college adjunct recently relegated to house sitting, is “aiming for a Pulitzer or an NBA shortlist but willing to settle for a PEN/Faulkner.” And yet, a robot named César Aira is not a writer, neither is his ex-wife, Onoto Watanna. Maude Edith Eaton here is also not an author, although in real life, Otono (born Winnifred Eaton) and Maude (famous as Sui Sin Far) were Chinese British American sister writers.
Lim’s labyrinthine imagination ably encapsulates his various identities as author, librarian, and co-founder of micro-publisher Ellipsis Press. Existing fans might recognize Frank Exit from Lim’s 2019 Dear Cyborgs – reading continuity, however, not required. Nothing will prove quite reliable here, which enhances Lim’s clever, subversive appeal.
Discover: Eugene Lim’s inventive narrative gathers a dysthymic AI scientist, a drone aficionado, a reincarnated pianist-gamer-now-dog, and a prodigious adoptee for an epic chase through multiple surrealities.
Review: “Fiction,” Shelf Awareness, October 15, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021