Linghun
by Ai Jiang
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted June 18, 2024
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Ai Jiang's novella Linghun recently won both Nebula and Bram Stoker awards, and is also a finalist for the Locus. It is available in both print (links above) and e-book formats. The Kindle file I purchased includes an essay and two additional short stories, which I will mention below. Jiang is Chinese-Canadian, living in Toronto, born in Fijian Province, either in or near its capital of Fuzhou. That matches the lives of several characters in the story. Wenqui is a teenager whose family has recently moved from the suburb of Scarborough to HOME, but her father still commutes to his job in Toronto, so he isn't in the story much. HOME is an acronym for "Homecoming of Missing Entities."
No one really knows how and why it started, or how long ago it began, but HOME is known to be a place people could expect visitations from the ghosts of their loved ones. It appears to be within the houses, not the land itself. Hopeful homeless people, knowns as "lingerers," camp out in the yards of houses, anxious for the occupants to either give up waiting for their loves ones to show, or give up the house for other reasons. It could be they can see the ghosts, but otherwise cannot interact with them, leading to frustration and heartache. Wenqui's family hopes to see her brother, who died when he was six, Wenqui only three at that time. In truth, only her mother cares enough to wait for her son. Her father has moved on, and even though Wenqui loved her brother, the memories are not strong enough for her to want to stay.
The title comes from the name of the woman that lives across the street from them, Linghun being her original Chinese name, although her Canadian husband had given her another name. He was very controlling, and condescending to her, a major reason being her difficulty in learning English, and her unwillingness to adopt Western ways. One of the lingerers is a boy a year or so older than Wenqui, whose name is Liam, which gives Mrs.? (how Liam refers to Linghun) uncomfortable thoughts, since that was her dead husband's name. Both Liam and Wenqui want to leave HOME, and I am sure her father feels the same, but her mother insists on staying. The ghosts are a fantasy element, but it is something completely human that provides the horror. Whenever a house becomes available an auction is held. The authorities don't seem to care how violent the lingerers' actions can be, in fact it appears they encourage it. Tokens are thrown into the crowd, and whoever has posession of them after a set time gets one bid, and that continues through multiple tokens available. The one auction Wenqui witnesses ends in multiple injuries, and one death. That gave me a Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" vibe.
Something I read in another review, or maybe just a social media comment, implicated Linghun as the beginning of the phenonmenon, and if that is the case I need to re-read to confirm or deny. It makes sense I guess, considering the title, but she was not identified until about halfway through the story. Before that she was only the weird lady across the street who stared out her window all day. Wenqui and Liam leave HOME together, and stay together for a time, but eventually come back to HOME to live in Linghun's house. The story ends inconclusively, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is emotionally haunting over and above the ghosts' hauntings. The pain of a lost one doesn't dissipate just because you can see them again. That pain will be with you forever. The thoughts this story generated in my mind will be with me a long time too.
The essay included is "A Ramble on Di Fu Ling & Death," concerning that type of ghost, and the way they differ from the ones in Linghun. A relevant quote: "…the ghosts that remain in HOME, that appear in the houses, are not bound by their own thoughts, desires, or regrets, but by the living that keep them there—the living who are unable to let go of the dead." The short stories include "Yongshí," originally published in The Dark Magazine in 2021. The main character is a Time Giver, who gives or takes time away by painting on a scroll, which she inherited from her grandmother. The title character is the daughter of one of the Time Giver's former lovers. Yongshí comes to the Time Giver to ask for more time for herself, and for her mother, whom the doctor said had only a month to live, and the girl doesn't have much time either, since she suffers from Wormrot. The girl wanted the time to work as much as possible in order to pay off her mother's debts, to be able to pay for the funeral and grave. The Time Giver grants her request, saying, "I will give you the time if you report back to me what you do with it." After a couple of weeks the girl returns, saying she needs to return the time she had left. "It was never mine." Her mother has died, she needs no more time. Time does not belong to anyone. It continues to move on without us. Forward or backward—it matters not. The other story is "Teeter Totter," wherein a woman is trapped in a neverending torture in the underworld. At one point she is able to return to life, to her husband, because he did not obey the traditional burial rites. He had not been aware she was a witch. A short book, but one full of interesting ideas and concepts, and memorable characters. Recommended.
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