w/
DAISUKE SHEN
FUNERAL is a novella co-authored by Daisuke Shen and Vi Khi Nao, written in the form of prose, images, alphabetical lists, diagrams, songs, and miniature plays. The story follows the character Eddie from the 1969 film Funeral Parade of Roses in her descent to hell, where she meets and falls in love with Xing Jin, also known as Madame Rose, during lunch one day. Together, they begin to work through the shame and trauma of their past lives, spending their days creating Hell's first boba shop and cheering on Hell's pingpong team in their final match against Heaven, but their relationship soon falls apart. When Xing returns home to Shanghai via Hell's bullet train, Eddie sets out on a journey to win her back, accompanied by her friends Tony Leung, the god Tu'Er Shen, the moon, Mary Poppins, and her over-talkative Uber driver Jimin Park. FUNERAL is an exploration of morality, pain, queerness, and Asian American identities written with irreverent humor and unflinching honesty.
REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
"A SOLITUDE OF TWO": Las Vegas review journal
30 Books To look Out for in Early 2023:
Independent Book Review
SEMIOTICS FOR THE GLOBAL DAMNED: Connor Hultman: Southwest Review
A CONVERSATION W/ DAISUKE SHEN & VI KHI NAO ABOUT THEIR COLLABORATIVE NOVELLA, FUNERAL: B.R. Yeager: The Rumpus
......
ADVANCED PRAISES for FUNERAL
Like two dreams of the underworld playing exquisite corpse with each other. And Tony Leung is in it. -- Sebastian Castillo
I read this & immediately wanted to riot in the streets, by virtue of how good it is. I also learned a lot of facts about public figures like Awkwafina & Michelle Obama. - Jesi Gaston, director of Black Pill, author of GOOMAH (GAUSS-PDF), and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics contributor (Nightboat Books)
This book brings out my ego because I tear up and/or giggle while reading it, feeling like it was written just for me. The film Funeral Parade of Roses—the story that Funeral continues—is an urban retelling, but all the trappings of stylization aren’t there: there’s no enforced grittiness; the lights are very bright, the blood flowing very freshly. This book by D & V captures the same approach: materials do not shield or dictate shape, they stagger and drape. Sometimes in the movement a secret color flickers. But more than just sensory development, an inexorable sequence of events. More than an allegory or satire or retelling, more like documentation of being entrenched in the universe and all the gossipy deadpan jokes to be made while trying to love sweetly in the face of cruelty’s differentiation. When everything feels impossible, maybe you have mistakenly presumed ethereality. D & V show that what animates aftermath is without boundaries. -- Ginger Ko
........