If I Were the Ocean, I'd Carry You Home

by Pete Hsu

Overview

Full of warmth, terror, and underhanded humor, If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home, Pete Hsu’s debut story collection, captures the essence of surviving in a life set adrift. Children and young people navigate a world where the presence of violence and death rear themselves in everyday places: Vegas casinos, birthday parties, church services, and sunny days at the beach. Each story is a meditation on living in a world not made for us—the pervasive fear, the adaptations, the unexpected longings. A gripping and energetic debut, Hsu’s writing beats with the naked rhythms of an unsettled human heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636280530
Publisher:	Red Hen Press
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Pete Hsu is a Taiwanese American writer based in Pasadena, CA. He is the author of the experimental chapbook, There is a Man (Tolsun Books). His work has also been featured in several journals and anthologies, including Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, F(r)iction, The Los Angeles Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He was a 2017 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow as well as the 2017 PEN in the Community Writer in Residence.

Editorial Reviews

Each story surprised me, over and over again, with the narratives of children and young people navigating the random dangers of their homes, the adults around them, and the absolute presence always of violence and death. But it was the sly humor, the vivid detail of forest and church and street and body, that made these stories stay with me. The voices are indelible, and the moments when the whole world turns and pivots were admirable in their magic.” 

—Susan Straight, award-winning author of a memoir, In the Country of Women, and eight novels, including Highwire Moon.

“Pete Hsu is a clear, emotionally perceptive writer. The twelve loosely connected stories in If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home give us intimate views into the inner lives of sensitive characters trying to find a foothold in the shifting terrain of this unpredictable, limitless world.” 

—Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay

“Pete Hsu’s writing is assured and his stories subtle and keenly observed. If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home is about family and friendship and the way we run—all of us—to forget what it seems we shouldn’t.”

—Natashia Deón, author of Grace and The Perishing

"Author Peter Hsu captures the essence of childhood, be it a little girl or little boy, precisely: the actions, the thoughts, the minds wandering here and there, wondering what it's like to be all grown up." —Skye Anderson, Patch

From the Publisher

02/10/2023

In Hsu's (There Is a Man) sparsely written collection, children from the Asian American diaspora attentively observe life, but that's not the case for them as adults. Separate stories feature Paul, Penny, and Reggie as children. Paul runs around a track with his father while explaining a school project; Penny's former stepfather teaches her how to shoot in the woods; and Reggie attends a birthday party with his grandfather and younger brother. They reappear as desperate or exasperated adults with lives involving misfortune and missed chances. Reggie's life is depicted in a few more stories. Standalone narratives with another child and other adults as main characters round out the collection. All 12 short stories might remind readers of excerpts from middle school English class, read to determine their theme and meaning. Most of the stories have ambiguous endings that leave characters either in the middle of a thought or a predicament. Other than Reggie, the other characters remain in a state of limbo. VERDICT There are a couple of standouts, including the eponymous story about Paul's attempts to tell his stepdaughter that her father is not returning. Give to those who enjoy quick reads that require deep thought.—Anjelica Rufus-Barnes

Library Journal