a vivid and unsettling portrait of Malaysian society, particularly focusing on the lives of women navigating the challenges posed by rapid urbanization, patriarchal norms, and theocratic governance. This book stands out as a significant contribution to contemporary literature, highlighting Ho Sok Fong's status as one of the most accomplished Malaysian writers.

In my attempt to read translated works as well as short stories, I chose this. It is written by a Malaysian Chinese author and shows a window into cultures that I had very little understanding of earlier.
As with most short story collections (even by the same author), the standard of stories usually varies wildly. This set was no different.
Each individual narrative differed in size as well as in the content or focus. The time and place had an effect on the experience as well.
A few bordered on magical realism, while others seemed to while just being social commentary. With each chapter, we observe a society that is weighed by how it is perceived and how its members act. I enjoyed some a lot more than others (There are only nine in the book).
I am not sure if I would recommend the whole book to anyone else, but it is an intriguing read in parts. I am glad I read it for the experience. The translation seemed to be well done because I expected something more choppy after looking at some of the other reviews. The stories have the abrupt quality built-in, so it worked out that way in the translation as well.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

It may be good, but I couldn't finish it. It was too boring and I didn't understand what the underline message of stories was. Went through my head.

But thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

Lake Like A Mirror is a collection of surreal Malaysian short stories (smoothly translated from Mandarin). The nine stories follow women who are all in some way constricted and limited by their surroundings, from the physical (a large wall separating a row of houses from the roaring highway) to societal (religiously-driven conservatism around what is permissible and what is out of bounds) and geographical (the limits of a small town). The protagonists’ enforced passivity results in an ennui and lethargy that easily slips into a dreamlike texture - in many of the stories, there is a similar experience to a Murakami where the mundane casually turns into the surreal. The collection is thematically-consistent but varies in quality, and some stories are much better than others - a particularly poor story midway through the collection was so ambiguously narrated that I failed to follow the story altogether. However some of the stories are impressively good - favourites of mine are ‘The Wall’ about an elderly lady who loses so much weight looking for a beloved cat that she becomes transparent, and ‘March In A Small Town’ about a woman who runs a hotel and notices a guest checking in everyday with no recollection of his previous visits.

I thoroughly enjoyed some of the stories, particularly the first few. But there were more overall that just didn't quite hit the mark for me. I enjoyed the more matter of fact ones to the weird, surreal ones, but I'm sure many people feel just the opposite.

There’s an eerie tension at the centre of the short stories in Ho Sok Fong’s collection “Lake Like a Mirror” but it’s not a conventional tension to do with plot. It’s more an uncertainty about how reality might bend around the perspectives of the characters involved. They might be consumed by plants or become amphibious or escape in an air balloon. Some stories slide more into the surreal while others confront harder realities such as women who are institutionalized or teachers who are dismissed for teaching liberal ideas. These tales revolve around the lives of different Malaysian women who are trapped in certain circumstances often to do with religious or social pressure. The title story is one of my favourites as it delicately describes a sense of how other people’s distressed lives touch upon our own and how we’re sometimes powerless to help them. But I also enjoyed the unsettling humour of the story ‘Summer Tornado’ where a woman attaches herself to a family at an amusement park and forces them to continue going on rides with her in manic desperation. Although many of the characters seem trapped in a sluggish existence there’s often a frenzy bubbling beneath the surface which warps the world around them in surprising and, sometimes, terrifying ways.

Fascinating look into Malay society. Loved the writing style. Not the easiest book to grasp if you don't have any previous knowledge of the history of Malaysia but these stories might open exactly this door into another culture.

A book of unique short stories set in Malaysia .A book of women each character so well written a society Revealed by this very talented author.Literary fiction a new voice.#netgalley#quarto

From an author described by critics as 'the most accomplished Malaysian writer, full stop' I think I just expected something more. The themes and plot lines had potential, I just like my short stories to have a bit more focus and narrative thrust.