A rich, emotionally intelligent collection.
Lim probes the fragile boundaries of memory, morality, and connection in his compelling collection. In the title story, a treasured wedding gift triggers a painful recognition: that love, however sincere, cannot save someone from themselves. In “The June Bugs,” two old friends sit in summer twilight after a funeral, talking past regrets and longings. “The Bed Wetter” uses a model airplane to awaken buried childhood shame and betrayal. In “Standing Outside,” a father grieves a child, while a mystical Egyptian artifact offers a surreal kind of solace. In “The Execution Channel,” society watches televised executions like reality TV. In “Wakey-Wakey,” a speculative near-future probes the ethics of sleep and control. “The Philanthropist,” set on another planet, imagines rebellion through a child’s gift of dreams. “Stolen” and “Better Late Than Never” explore chance meetings that echo with what’s lost.
The poem “The Stinger” examines how revenge and reinvention often blur. In “The Drop-out,” a dropout reflects on paths not taken. Lim’s characters often stand at quiet crossroads, caught between memory and forgetting, or between what they hoped for and what remains. And Lim captures these moments with a light touch, a dry wit, and a poet’s restraint. These are stories of private reckonings and public failures, of everyday moments cracked open by grief, guilt, or quiet joy. If some stories privilege theme over character, they nonetheless expand the book’s reach. As a whole, this is a thoughtful, elegant meditation on the cost of connection and the small, fragile ways we try to mend what’s broken.
A quietly dazzling collection that moves between loss, memory, and quiet revelation.
Pub date February 21, 2025
Outskirts Press
ISBN 978-1977280190
Price $17.95 (USD) Paperback, $9.99 Kindle edition
