{"product_id":"gunk-baby-isbn-9781662601453","title":"Gunk Baby","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Lau's] gift for writing accumulative insanities creates the same dizzying effect as a good cleaning.\" —Alexandra Tanner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A dissociative meditation on a world that has come to feel increasingly meaningless . . . [Lau's] prose combines the languid torpor of Michael Bible with the unease of Yoko Ogawa's more macabre work.\" ―Declan Fry, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA black comedy workplace thriller set in a sprawling indoor shopping mall about a cabal of low-wage workers who plot violent acts of “resistance” against their managers.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the suburb of Par Mars stand a pair of identical shopping centers, each with the same harsh, fluorescent lights, climate-controlled environment, and monotonous encounters between employees and shoppers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eReviving an ancient Chinese ritual passed down by her mother, twenty-four-year-old Leen has opened an ear-cleaning and massage studio in the Topic Heights Shopping Center. But the social fabric of Par Mars is coming loose, and a quiet unrest is growing among the mall’s low-wage workers as store managers begin to fall victim to increasingly brutal and spontaneous attacks. When Leen befriends Jean Paul, a pharmacist enmeshed in a cryptic online community, she finds herself embroiled in a troubling plot to disrupt the routines of the town’s banal consumer culture.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWith fierce intellect, sharp wit, and original prose, Jamie Marina Lau interprets and vividly portrays the everyday violence and toil of contemporary working life. Encapsulating millennial ennui and middle-class boredom, \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is an inventive and deliberate novel from a fresh, new, exciting voice.\"A sardonic, Klieg-lit tale of consumerism and capitalism gone awry.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Gregory Cowles, A \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e Editors' Choice\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[Lau's] gift for writing accumulative insanities creates the same dizzying effect as a good cleaning.\" —\u003cb\u003eAlexandra Tanner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lau delivers an astute narrative . . . an exposé of and warning to a society on the verge of failing its young adults. Lau herself is of that very generation, making her sharp, shrewd observations about discontent and disconnect more immediately caustic, as well as—ironically—more reliably empathetic.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTerry Hong, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Funny, bold, capacious . . . this book mirrors modern life.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lau makes . . . good points about consumerism and ably captures the mood of disenchanted youth . . . [She] has plenty of talent.\" \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A dissociative meditation on a world that has come to feel increasingly meaningless, Lau's second novel harks back to an older era of Australian fiction . . . her prose combines the languid torpor of Michael Bible with the unease of Yoko Ogawa's more macabre work . . . She reminds us of the adventurousness that once saw local writers and directors win both sales and critical acclaim . . . Their spirits are sorely missing from the landscape today. Lau is to be commended for keeping them alive.”\u003cbr\u003e―\u003cb\u003eDeclan Fry, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Taking aim at consumerism, class and orientalism, \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby \u003c\/i\u003eis an original and unforgettable read.”\u003cbr\u003e―\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCosmopolitan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The viscerality of violence in Lau’s world expands and contracts between banal and horrific; oppression and resistance while denying us the purgative resolution we are so attached to . . . \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby\u003c\/i\u003e explores the cruel optimism of enacting personal revenge for a structural issue.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Taylor Mitchell, \u003ci\u003eKill Your Darlings\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Jamie Marina Lau's style is captivating—you're drawn into the stagnant world of this Australian suburbia, and everything seems bizarre and off in a way that makes you feel constantly uncomfortable.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e―Prudence Wade, \u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A book like this—that doesn't take the expected route, that gambles on a quiet and potentially difficult-to-access protagonist—is a gift . . . Lau's strength as an author shines in this space she has carved out for herself . . . \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby\u003c\/i\u003e, despite its surreal aura, exposes power structures and daily violence in a way that will make you think about the real world a little deeper.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e―Elizabeth Flux, \u003ci\u003eThe Monthly Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a novel—as it is formally defined—should be: novel. Lau's talent is in excavating the psyche of her characters and their environments . . . \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby\u003c\/i\u003e is the artistic equivalent of an ongoing disintegration, an experimental critique of the absurdities of consumer culture.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e―Cher Tan, \u003ci\u003eThe Saturday Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A disorienting and sinister consumerist dystopia. \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby \u003c\/i\u003eis the blackest sort of satire on post-industrial anomie, though it has a sharp sense of intellectual playfulness too . . . Fans of Bret Easton Ellis, J.G. Ballard or Chuck Palahniuk's \u003ci\u003eFight Club \u003c\/i\u003ewill lap up the affectless nihilism of Lau's vision: it reopens a peculiar vein of postmodern darkness that seemed to have all but collapsed in Australian fiction.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e―Cameron Woodhead, \u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The poison of capitalism and consumerism seeps through the pages of \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby \u003c\/i\u003eso subtly that the reader barely notices until they are drowning in it . . . A writer of the zeitgeist, Lau uses a distinctly ‘online’ voice that speaks to the disconnect of the present generation and to the bleak, capital-driven path humanity took to get there. An audacious, nihilistic novel.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e―Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Australia Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A tender horror story, all the more haunting for being so familiar, \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby \u003c\/i\u003ecaptures the plight of the body—its fragility, its need for connection—in a world of surveillance and synthetic calm. Lau's voice is cool, precise yet unfailingly human, taking aim at mall culture, work culture and consumer culture, and revealing them as excuses we whisper to ourselves as we lurch slowly towards a luxurious void.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Roisin Kiberd, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Disconnect\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A new, detuned world, globalized but specific, casually weird, Jamie Marina Lau's sensibility is elliptical and it is unique; here is a new existence among the malls of instant consumerism.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Alan Warner, author of \u003ci\u003eTheir Lips Talk of Mischief\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eJamie Marina Lau is a writer, mentor, musician, and the author of the internationally acclaimed novels \u003ci\u003eGunk Baby\u003c\/i\u003e (Astra House, 2022) and \u003ci\u003ePink Mountain on Locust Island\u003c\/i\u003e published by Hachette, Astra Publishing House, and Coffee House Press. Her prose has been praised by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003efor its exquisite precision and immersive world-building.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJamie has mentored and taught fiction and poetry around the world. In 2022, she was selected for a full scholarship position at the Iowa International Writers Program where she taught experimental fiction. She has also been an Emerging Writers Festival Ambassador and Red Room Poetry Ambassador, as well as a National Writers Conference Keynote Speaker. Most recently Jamie was the inaugural recipient of The Paragraph Fellowship and previously awarded the Melbourne Prize Readings Residency Award. Updates and more information can be found here: https:\/\/jm-lau.com\/","brand":"Astra House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301321658597,"sku":"NP9781662601453","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781662601453.jpg?v=1767728581","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/gunk-baby-isbn-9781662601453","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}