Canadian Kevin Chong begins Beauty
Plus
Pity with a stunner first paragraph:
"Who'd pick a funeral to meet your
long-lost sister? A funeral or the sudden arrival of a family
member--either would be shitty enough, but that morning, my head felt
encased in bubble wrap, my stomach was a wading pool of bile, and I was
sweating booze through my shoulder-stuffed suit like a cigarette
lighter before it ignites. All of this was self-administered misery,
and yet I still arrived late to deliver my father's eulogy."
The narrator, Malcolm Kwan, a twenty-something Canadian-Chinese
slacker, works in a used record store in Vancouver, BC. His parents
wanted him to make something of himself. Malcolm tried writing a film
script--that didn't click. His ex-girlfriend Sandrine suggested, with
his looks--male modelling--but he's content to let the idea simmer (for
years).
![[beauty plus pity]](chong.gif)
Then his dad dies.
Beauty Plus Pity is a young
man's try at ambition, post-pater.
Malcolm father's Oliver wanted to be a great film director and
claimed to have helped Edward Chew become Hollywood box office. But
Oliver settled for making training films and commercials for local
pizza chains.
If Malcolm's father fell short on his dream, he made up for it with
vices: smoking, drinking, and womanizing about with "Uncle Charlie"
(who before and after the funeral takes Malcolm out). Plus, at the
funeral, a previously unknown half-sister of Malcolm, Hadley, shows up.
Malcolm takes Hadley on as a housemate. A wistful sibling attraction
develops.
Alas, the story takes hard turns toward implausibility:
* Malcolm's break in modelling comes from the famous Edward Chew. In
town to shoot a commercial, he chooses Malcolm (whom he never knew).
* Malcolm's girlfriend Claire moves out and marries Seamus, male
lover of the husband of Vanessa (Malcolm's modelling agent) before said
unfaithful husband was killed crossing a street.
* Malcolm's half-sister Hadley--on the school water polo team--goes
off to Guyana for volunteer work. On a hot day, she goes swimming and
drowns.
* Malcolm's ex-girlfriend Sandrine shows up. She reveals--this years
later--Malcolm fathered Felix, a baby put out for adoption. Malcolm
meets Felix and the adoptive parents. And Malcolm and Sandrine go
conjugal again.
In sum: strong dialogue, vivid portrayal of intricacies from one
Hong Kong/Vancouver Canadian-Chinese family. But lacking
self-awareness, Malcolm seems fated to follow his father's errant
footsteps. 'Tis the pity, not the beauty.
Beauty Plus Pity by Kevin
Chong, Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, 2011, 256 pp., ISBN:
97815511524160.
Read Charlie Dickinson's
story collection, The Cat
at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable
formats:
.mobi
(Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)
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