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{"id":2347,"date":"2020-11-29T10:45:40","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T10:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2347"},"modified":"2020-11-29T17:09:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T17:09:37","slug":"lone-star-review-nights-when-nothing-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2347&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Review: NIGHTS WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review of debut literary fiction from Carrollton author<\/p>\n

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Eleven-year-old Jack Cheng knows Plano is a scary place. \u201cAt an hour when the house held its breath and waited for something to happen, Jack stayed up and read books in which characters died, literally, of fright.\u201d Jack is on watch and has taken the midnight shift, which is why he\u2019s the one to find his five-year-old sister, Annabel, \u201ccurled around the toilet one night, sleepwalking into the swinging kitchen door another night\u201d and then she sleepwalks out the front door. Jack finds her blocks away, barefoot, staring unseeingly at a streetlamp. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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On Jack\u2019s first day of middle school, his class is advised of the banned words: \u201cDo not say stab<\/em>, murder<\/em>, choke<\/em>, shoot<\/em>, or bomb<\/em>. Especially bomb<\/em>. . . . Never say bomb<\/em>.\u201d They have active-shooter drills. Annabel\u2019s teachers at her Montessori kindergarten warn of \u201cbad touches,\u201d teach them self-defense, and take their classes on a field trip to the Sixth Floor Museum: \u201cAnd his head went blam<\/em>! Like when Daddy dropped the watermelon.\u201d Annabel reports that she and her friend Elsie watched the Zapruder film fourteen times. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Nights When Nothing Happened<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em>is Carrollton author <\/span><\/span>Simon Han<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u2019s debut novel. It is a sometimes comedic, sometimes harrowing, always thoughtful exploration of displacement, home, family, the contradictions of our modern world, and the possible mistakes we make in arming our children against invasive, infectious fear.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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When Nights When Nothing Happened <\/em>opens, Patti and Liang are attempting to make Annabel sleep in her own bed. The displacement of Annabel from her parents\u2019 bed serves as metaphor for the immigrant family\u2019s psychological and emotional displacement from their native China, from their new home, and from each other. Annabel alone was born in the US, and she is the embodiment of this place. Privileged and indulged, Annabel is bright and brash and heedless of others, which has alchemized to aggression and bullying. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Chengs are complex characters who do not give up their secrets easily. Liang and Patti are disillusioned with the trade-offs required for this Plano life. Liang\u2019s photography business makes most of its money from an in-store booth where teenagers take selfies with props; Patti\u2019s position at Texas Semiconductor demands hours that keep her from home and family: \u201cThere were fewer hours in America, or at least it felt that way.\u201d Liang wants to \u201csleep like we sleep before, remember? . . . your foot touch my foot, like you want to make sure I am there.\u201d This conflict scares the parents, inciting an emotional cold war that Annabel perceives as \u201cA louder silence, as if they were screaming through the house, HEAR HOW SILENT WE ARE!\u201d Shifting third-person-limited perspectives allows us into each character\u2019s headspace, though they don\u2019t cover the same action, therefore sparing us the confusion caused by a lesser writer wielding this technique.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The irony is that the Cheng parents chose Plano (\u201ca suburb of motion sensors, outlet plug covers, automatic sliding doors, intercoms, sprinkler systems\u201d and those ubiquitous Bradford pears) for its low crime rate and highly-rated schools, \u201cin order to not be scared.\u201d No one mentions the epidemic of heroin overdoses the decade before or the rash of suicides the decade before that. \u201cEvery year, a new wave of residents diluted the collective memory of the city, like fresh customers unwittingly enlisted in a company\u2019s rebranding.\u201d Metaphor abounds, even in the ever-expanding freeway system\u2014\u201cMachines romped across earthwork and concrete, programmed with two rules: always move forward, and do not, under any circumstances, touch each other.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Are we teaching our children to be safe or to be afraid? What happens when we are so alienated from each other that we fail, despite what we think are our best intentions, to protect each other? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Simon Han is an impressive new talent, and I look forward to seeing what he does next.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"