My Symptoms

My Symptoms, a six-sectioned book of short stories, does much to showcase Chinese-American poet John Yau's formidable lyrical abilities. This statement is especially true of the second section, which, as Publishers Weekly says, is filled with "spare, sure, lyrical vignettes reminiscent of Lydia Davis's work." Alienation and isolation are two of the book's main preoccupations, but in it Yau plumbs all of the oftentimes-distressing aspects of the human condition. The Review of Contemporary Fiction remarked, "These are stories that recount the symptoms of many, if not most." Certainly, all readers are invited to read and perhaps empathize.