Look Who’s Morphing is published by Giramondo Publishing. It was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (South East Asia and Pacific), 2009 Age Book of the Year (Fiction) and Best Writing Award 2009.
Blurb
Look Who’s Morphing is a collection of funny, playful, often outlandish fictions in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music and books, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston’s bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4×4 – and, as a climax, a fifty-five metre tall guitar-wielding cock rock star, who performs for the people of Tokyo, and an adoring troupe of sexy fans.
Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it is constructed in a world filled with the images of popular culture.
Excerpts From Some Reviews and Such
A collection of short fictions that appropriates pop culture in a way that is both coolly analytical and irreverent. The funniest and most original book published this year… (Judges’ Report, Fiction category, The Age Book of the Year 2009)
(P)ithily written, hilarious… He delights in bending meanings and expectations to breaking point – in common lingo, he likes fucking with your head… his stories… represent transformations of language, each one a seething test tube of conflicting genres and reversed expectations – a linguistic gender fuck, a garden of imaginative delights. (MCV)
(A) delightfully eccentric look at life in a popular-culture saturated world… Cho displays a fine eye for the camp and outrageous… For those on his wavelength, Cho’s book is entertaining and thought-provoking. (The Australian)
There’s more to Cho’s work than eliciting big laughs, but how often do you close a book, then open it right back up again just to relive that pleasure? (The Australian Literary Review)
Cho has accomplished a piece of work that will surely stand the test of time. (ArtsHub)
Cover photo: Owen Leong