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Please join us! <br><br>
<b>Saturday, February 3<sup>rd</sup> at 3:00pm<br>
Tinling Choong reads from Firewife<br>
Writers Live! <br>
NHFPL 133 Elm Street<br>
New Haven, CT
06511</b>
contact:
<a href="mailto:john.jessen@nhfpl.org">john.jessen@nhfpl.org</a>
203-946-7001<br>
<br>
The New Haven Free Public Library kicks off their Writers Live series
this spring with a reading by Tinling Choong from her book
<b>FireWife.</b> <br><br>
Choong’s first novel draws on the Chinese creation myth to tell the
fictional story of a photographer, Nin, who leaves her corporate job in
California to photograph women throughout the world. Her journey turns
into a search for the truth about women: the women of fire and the women
of water. In Taipei, she meets Zimi, water, who leases her forehead as
advertising space and wants to donate her eggs to an infertile friend. In
Bangkok, she photographs Ut, fire, a fourteen-year-old girl forced into
prostitution. In Tokyo, her subject nicknamed Table, water, bares her
body so that sushi may be served upon her daily to groups of salivating
men. Each of their lives echoes a stage in Nin's journey to discover her
true fire self.<br>
<br>
Following is the early praise:<br>
<br>
Robert Stone: ''Tinling Choong’s extraordinary work, <b>FireWife</b>,
combines psychological depth with mythologically inclined reference
points, giving it a remarkable freshness and singularity. FireWife
represents the debut of an important artist.''<br>
<br>
<br>
Harold Bloom: “<b>FireWife</b>, Tinling Choong’s first book, is both an
absorbing short novel and a brilliant erotic phantasmagoria, as
poignantly poetic as it is compelling narrative. This is a strong
augmentation of American-Asian literature."<br>
<br>
<br>
Booklist: Choong’s first novel draws on the ancient Chinese mythology of
struggle between the archetypal forces of fire and water, with outcomes
affecting each protagonist so that the extreme passion of fire-love
shapes the life of one and deeply flowing water-love defines that of
another. The travels of photographer Nin, who suffers long-standing guilt
over her sister’s drowning, awakens to her self-awareness. She leaves her
husband and California corporate life, eventually realizing that she is
“four parts fire having to live the life of four parts water” and that
her “FireWife journey” means living as she truly is. Her global quest for
images of women’s stories becomes personal as she encounters Zimi, who
lives in Taipei by leasing her forehead for advertisements promoting
“Tampax Tampons 2 for 1,” and the girl known as table, who works naked as
a table for sushi dining. While serving lascivious Tokyo businessmen,
table escapes reality by imagining herself studying fashion design in New
York. Such marginalized lives, depicted in Choong’s sparely elegant,
flowing prose, become icons of society’s disposal of women. Whitney
Scott<br><br>
<br>
Born and raised in Malaysia, Tinling Choong graduated from Wellesley
College, worked for several years, and is presently working toward a
Ph.D. in Chinese Literature at Yale. In 1997she was awarded the generous
Wellesley College Stevens Traveling Fellowship to travel to Asia to
further develop <b>FireWife</b>. <b>FireWife</b> is her first book. Fuent
in Mandarin-Chinese and the Teohchew and Hokkien dialects. She now
lives in Vermont with her husband and baby daughter.<br><br>
<br>
For a complete list of Writers Live! events scheduled thus far for Spring
2007 visit:
<a href="http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/library" eudora="autourl">
www.cityofnewhaven.com/library</a><br>
<br>
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