Alexandra Chang's short story collection, 'Tomb Sweeping' is comprised of stories that tackle several subjects including hubris, distancing, everyday relationships, families, and friendship gone awry.

I especially liked the story of the 'recycling lady' told backwards in time, from her last years to her beginnings. Originally, she had hope, connection and a good life. Gradually, it all got lost and she became homeless, relying on the cash she received from recyclables.

My other favorite story was about the Shanghai girl who becomes an employee of a mafia owned casino. She always thought she was better than everyone else and had a lot coming to her. She was even able to make light of her hubris that got her in trouble.

I found most of the stories excellent but there were a few that didn't hold my interest.

I want to thank ECCO, Alexandra Chang and NetGalley for allowing me an early review copy of this book.

I found Tomb Sweeping to be an incisive and affecting snapshot into various facets of what it means to be alive and confronting aging/one's own mortality in the 21st century. While not all of the stories felt they were fully resolved by their conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed existing within that brief moment in time in the characters' lives. I felt that the two shortest stories ("Li Fan" and "Me and My Algo") were the most successful, but I also want to highlight "Persona Development," "A Visit," and the titular "Tomb Sweeping" as standouts. I saw a lot of myself in these pages as a Chinese-American and will absolutely be picking up a copy to return to in the future. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one early!

Unfortunately, I started this during finals and then completely forgot about it. But, from what I remembered I quite enjoyed it for the parts I read, I remember chuckling quite a bit!

I do not frequently pick up short story collections, but I am glad Alexandra Chang's second publication caught my eye. There are several stand-outs in this volume -- all of them clustered at the beginning, for better or for worse -- including "Li Fan," "Cure for Life," and "Farewell, Hank." Even the stories that I didn't feel strongly invested in have deeply relatable characters, tackling themes of aging, grief, and sudden societal change. Many stories trail off at the end, leaving readers with a melancholy feeling; I respect this resolution, but did feel a bit fatigued by the end of the collection. Some readers may feel the endings are too "one-note," but overall, I found this to be a strong collection with enough moments of surprise to keep me interested.

A beautiful collection of stories each one drew me in..Unknown by unknown was exceptional.,A really inventive group of stories really enjoyed.#netgalley #ecco

very single story in this collection was a hit for me (special shoutout to ‘a visit’ for making me tear up). the variety of experiences and topics that chang touches while retaining nuanced narratives and proximity to the characters that makes you feel as if you are in the room with them is an incredible display of craft & i’ll definitely be looking out for future works.

Beautiful writing, but I struggled to connect to most of the stories -- a bit ironic, since an underlying theme of all of these stories is people connecting (or not connecting) to each other. Standouts were To Get Rich Is Glorious, Farewell Hank, Klara, Tomb Sweeping, and Persona Development. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this one early.

*4.5 rounded up for GoodReads scoring*
Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you know me, you know that Alexandra Chang's debut novel, "Days of Distraction," is one of my favorite novels so when I saw that she was releasing a short story collection, I just had to request it. And my god, this collection did not disappoint. Like other short story collections, not every story was perfect but man were Chang's less than perfect stories still engaging and beautifully written. Right off the bat, some of my favorite stories in the collection were "Unknown by Unknown", "To Get Rich Is Glorious", "Cure for Life", "A Visit" (this one had me crying by the end of it), "Tomb Sweeping" (the titular story and good god, I loved it), and "Other People".

My favorite thing about Chang's writing is how simple it is. She doesn't use these huge flourishes in her narratives and writing style so it makes her writing feel very realistic and human in a way that I think is really effective. I've also enjoyed the way that she is able to write about the Asian American experience without any sort of pretenses. It's just a "it is what it is" kind of situation and in that regard, it makes her writing that much more relatable, especially as a fellow AAPI woman. In this collection, I think that she has further solidified her position, in my mind, as a talented and insightful writer. I can't say just how much I love her writing and the way that it makes me feel. I just have to continuously recommend her to everyone.

This is a refreshing and enthralling collection of short stories. Each story started off strong and created its own world that I wanted to stay in forever, but was satisfied with how Chang wrapped each up. The variety of topics and characters was so well-executed. I'm still thinking about moments from each story days after reading Tomb Sweeping, and I think I will be doing so for a long while. I look forward to reading more of Chang's work in the future!

Love the emotions portrayed in each story. I felt that I knew each character's inner thoughts and complex feelings. Recommend for anyone interested in short stories that touch on the messiness and contradictions of the human experience.

I received an advanced reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. Publication date: August 8, 2023.

Alexandra Chang’s Tomb Sweeping is an endearing and deeply-moving short story collection that explores the intricacies of everyday relationships with parents, siblings, friends, and even strangers. Through poignant and heartfelt short stories of, often Chinese women, across the US and Asia, Chang delves into the often overlooked and mundane aspects of the life of those young and old, from immigrants to those who never left home.

A teenage girl finds solace in her father’s passing at a strange funeral held for a dying man yet still alive. A recent college grad mourns her fading college friendship with another second-generation immigrant girl. An adult daughter, monitoring her aging parents through a high-tech camera, realizes that no technology can bridge the emotional distance. And complex dynamics of a strained sibling relationship within a mixed-status family come to light. These are only a glimpse of witty stories in this book that examine our relationship with life, mortality, technology, those we love, and those who love us.

In one story, A Visit, an elderly Asian immigrant father moves in with his adult daughter temporarily for a few months. He brings her Mexican blankets brought in Texas at a huge discount and asks her, Guess how much? - a universal question that Asian parents love to ask to show off for scoring a good deal and, hilariously, also the name of Jimmy O Yang’s new stand-up special. The father expresses his love in typical Asian fatherly ways: fixing appliances around the house, commenting on the upgrade that she should do, and maybe not so typical, burning a stick of incense in his daughter’s almost-dead houseplant soil (maybe to pray to bring peace and safety to her home). The father apologizes for having stayed too long when he’s leaving, and the daughter says no no no, you can stay as long as you want, and feels suddenly empty inside. These ordinary father-daughter interactions, filled with slight awkwardness and prolonged silence, made me think of my own dad who can be annoying and awkward but still expresses his love for me in his own endearing ways.

In the namesake story titled, Tomb Sweeping, the protagonist writes about her experience visiting her grandparents’ graves with her parents.

"Life without my grandparents, especially my grandfather, had been both sad and liberating to me. I had lost their comforting presence but also didn’t have to think about anything beyond school, my friends, and the daily chores my mother and father gave me."

As I was flipping through the pages, I wondered if my dad had felt something similar after losing both of his parents one after another over the past few years. When my grandmother was sent to a care facility after she could no longer live alone due to her worsening Alzheimer’s, and when, just a few years after her passing, my grandfather was hospitalized after a stroke, his sadness seeped through our phone calls. He tried to sound cheered up for me, but I could feel him being weighted down by something heavy.

Perhaps it was the profound sorrow of witnessing his parents' passing, so close in time. Maybe it was his fear of navigating life as an orphaned adult, unsure of how to move forward. Or maybe, as the only child, he did not have anyone else to share his burden with. Fast forward to today, he appeared to be back to his cheerful self, busied with starting new business projects after retirement and traveling to conferences. I wonder if he’s happier now because he’s now free from the burden of caretaking. Regardless, I feel happy for him.

Tomb Sweeping (扫墓), also called the Qing Ming Festival (清明节) the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, is when Chinese families visit the graves of their ancestors, clean the gravesites (thus tomb sweeping), and make ritual offerings to honor their ancestors. I have not gone back to China to visit my grandparent’s graves since they passed away. I have only mourned them in my thoughts, in very abstract terms. I worry that I won’t be able to continue this ritual that holds so much value in my culture. And I suddenly realized that tomb sweeping might be the only cultural ritual I cannot carry on here in the U.S. where I am far away from my homeland, where my ancestors are buried.

Radically empathetic and human in her storytelling, Alexandra Chang writes extraordinary stories that delve into the ordinary experiences of human relationships, our relationship with ourselves and others, and the ultimate question of what makes life worth living. Reading Tomb Sweeping has made me think, feel, and remember, and I am sure it will do that to you too.

I absolutely love a short story collection. This wonderful piece gives so much. It is important, witty, and very entertaining. Spring is Short Story Season!

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

I was drawn into "Tomb Sweeping" initially by the fantastic cover art, and then by the first short story. Alexandra Chang has written a collection of short stories which are each widely different from each other in tone and theme. Unfortunately, for me personally, after the first story, I wasn't as invested in the characters or plots. There was typically a sentence or two in each story that I found particularly stunning or wise, but the endings fell flat for me, and I didn't really connect with many of the characters. Some of them I even found a bit boring.

I always go into a short story collection knowing that not every story will resonate with me or be "the story", but this collection just felt like it was almost going somewhere really interesting, but ultimately fell a little short.

That being said, I do credit the author for writing so many unique and varied stories. Some of the concepts I found very intriguing--just didn't felt like many had endings that felt rushed or odd.

3.5 stars

this was fun, i enjoyed the themes explored - gender, race, class, definitely favored the first half to the second and there were some stories i rly didn't care for, but mostly i found them intriguing, creative and fun. not a fav but i would recommend to others for sure.

thank you netgalley and ecco for the arc !!

I found the first five stories in this 15-story collection marvelous. Having read it in late March, those are the ones that have stayed with me. The rest of the stories in the collection were good, fine, but, for me, did not have the reach and impact as those first five did. Overall, the stories are about generational divides, generational histories, technologies that bring us close or keep us apart, about women and girls (mostly) trying to navigate their worlds, with friends, family, ambitions, the past and the future. A five for those first five, threes for the rest.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the ARC.

This collection of stories is absolutely beautiful. Alexandra Chang takes on rather quotidian subjects and situations - like going to your mom's neighbor's party, meeting an old friend for coffee, or hiring an exterminator - and highlights the truth and humanity in the decisions and motivations therein. It's almost cathartic to find recognition in these outrageously normal scenarios. And thank goodness Chang chose this format, the mirror held up is difficult to look into for too long; the grace of the short story was thoughtful and appreciated. The writing is on point, so smart and without a drop of pretension. This is a not-to-be-missed book.

A very strong collection of stories. Quite impressive, and often innovative. Recommended.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Exceptional collection of stories featuring primarily women of Chinese descent in various aspects of life, many through experiences of immigrants. For once, each story resonates, not a clinker in the bunch. One standout, for me, was Li Fan in which an entire is told in microcosm, backwards, beginning with a death and finishing with incipient lifelong dreams. Highly recommend. An author to follow.

Well-written stories about death, boredom, depression, searching for meaning, finding hidden power, and relationships. I liked the more experimental stories best--the life described backwards, the mysterious and unresolved issue of the painter at the shack, a woman whose life becomes taken over by algorithms. I'd love to teach some of these to my writing students.

A modern look at life, womanhood, technology, family, and selfhood in a series of compelling, witty and thought-provoking short stories. Alexandra Chang's debut story collection is a masterclass in writing for the millennial. She speaks to the 'now' in ways that many writers try and fail miserably at. She captures the ennui and malaise of my generation without the hopelessness many tend to concentrate on. It's by no means exclusively catering to millennials, though. She writes about a variety of characters, across age and gender barriers, creating a chorus of voices that build a cohesive series of stories.

In the opening story, a powerful introduction to the collection, a young woman takes a house sitting job in a remote mountain villa and is mesmerized by a particular painting in the house and its mysterious creator ("Unknown by Unknown"). That story is followed up by a short but impactful story told in reverse, chronicling the life of an immigrant woman as we trace the steps of her life from death back to her young adulthood ("Li Fan"). These two stories excellently capture Chang's ability to write widely—of experiences, in different genres and tones—and still manage to have something clear to say; and yet still leaves enough for the reader to interpret and ponder afterwards.

Many of the stories in this collection consider our place in modern society, whether through our relationship to technology, the economy and capitalism, or one another. Many of the characters have awkward encounters or uncomfortable conversations that lead to revelations about who THEY are as a human and how we function in a collective. There's a clear grappling within this collection of the individual versus society as a whole, our reckoning with history and where we come from. The future and past interplay in a way that's both confounding and comforting, as we realize our tiny existence on this planet is but a brief story in the annals of history.

There's no doubt I loved this book. I knew from the first story I would love Chang's writing style, and her ability to drop me immediately into a story and feel fully immersed in the character's experience and world is something I seek out when reading short story collections. This was a near perfect series of stories that I would love to revisit someday, and highly encourage everyone to pick up when it's released in August 2023.