BRATTLEBORO — On Friday, May 12, at 5 p.m., A Literary Cocktail Hour will present critically acclaimed author Kathryn Ma, with her latest book, The Chinese Groove, in an online conversation with local writer Stephanie Greene. Register at bit.ly/LitCocktail30.
In The Chinese Groove, 18-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province and living in the shadow of his widowed father's grief, dreams of bigger things.
Buoyed by an exuberant heart and his cousin Deng's tall tales about the United States, Shelley heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome by the awesome powers of the “Chinese groove,” a belief in the unspoken bonds between countrymen that transcend time and borders.
Upon arrival, Shelley is dismayed to find that his “rich uncle” is in fact his unemployed second cousin once removed and that the grand guest room he'd envisioned is but a scratchy sofa. The indefinite stay he'd planned for? That has a firm two-week expiration date.
Even worse, the loving family he hoped would embrace him is in shambles, shattered by a senseless tragedy that has cleaved the family in two. They want nothing to do with this youthful bounder who's barged into their lives.
Ever the optimist, Shelley concocts a plan to resuscitate his American dream by insinuating himself into the family. And, who knows, maybe he'll even manage to bring them back together in the process.
Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR “Great Read” of the year.
Her short story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Discoveries Book. She is also a recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has twice been named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate.
Greene's short fiction has been published in Nostoc magazine, Green Mountains Review, Sky Island Journal, The New Guard, and Flash Fiction magazine. Her work has been long-listed for the Lascaux Prize for Short Fiction, nominated for inclusion in the Best of the Net Anthology and for a Pushcart Prize. A contributor to Vermont Public for nine years, she lives on the family farm with her husband, writer and artist Marshall Brooks.