Memory Sickness

Fiction. Asian American Studies. MEMORY SICKNESS by Phong Nguyen is the winner of the 2010 Elixir Press Fiction Award. It is a loosely related series of short stories, set in Rhode Island, that illuminates our tentative and painful paths in this world. William Giraldi has this to say about it: Dead-on in its depiction of modern malaise, MEMORY SICKNESS will burn in your own memory forever, assuring you of the sickness we are. Phong Nguyen has crafted stories with zero at the bone, stories of how the child is father of the man, of what we do to one another in this world, and what we do to ourselves. His Providence, Rhode Island, seems borne into being by the bastard offspring of Denis Johnson and Mary Gaitskill: a place of danger, horror, and the dim hope necessary for our survival. This book will scar you.