I was excited about this book, but I didn’t love it. The premise was interesting. Turning into a clam after being told to clam down instead calm down. Thank you AutoCorrect. Oddly the interesting part was the interviews with the clam the Chinese clams that added historical context. I didn’t quite understand that dad‘s narrative did he write that or was she guessing? It was a little clunky and I didn’t enjoy the book quite as much as I had thought it would so it was a little bit of a slog.

I received this book as a widget and it seemed I interesting. I got about 25% through the book and realized it wasn't holding my interest. I need to be more selective with my widgets.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the arc of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoyed Anelise Chen’s structurally inventive, meticulously crafted novel So Many Olympic Exertions (2017), and she returns with this even stranger, more surprisingly crafted book. In a note at the end, she meditates on its genre: “you might think that what you’ve just read is a novel, and that is entirely fine by me … Whatever this is, it’s certainly not a *memoir.” And yet, I’d like to argue that it *could be.*”

Here’s what’s so weird: the title comes from a typo. Chen is going through a divorce, and her mother repeatedly texts her to “clam down,” and this inspires Chen to metaphorically transform herself into a clam. Throughout the book, she refers to herself in the third person, as “the clam.” A third-person memoir allows for a tone of measured examination, echoing something psychological or scientific—and Chen does incorporate quite a bit of clam science—but it’s no less heartfelt.

Chen engages with Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” but this is decidedly not Kafkaesque—the absurd is a way into the mundane, and situations are merely as strange as they are. This is a portrait of a clam slowly moving on, letting go of a past relationship and becoming open to new ones. The clam travels to Taos for an artist residency, and Southwest landscapes shape much of the book.

If that weren’t enough, much of the book is written in the first person—but from the perspective of Chen’s father, Henry. In inhabiting his voice, she explores years in which she felt distant from him, when he was creating a company called Shell Computing or pursuing graduate studies in Taiwan. It’s exaggerated at times, but deeply compassionate. The clam trope intersects with the clam’s father to give Chen a chance to situate her narrative within larger Asian American themes and tropes. She comments a lot on immigration, and in a fun touch, chapters are framed by cryptic cookie-style fortunes from her father’s program.

The book did feel a little too long to me, but I really enjoyed it, and can’t wait to keep following Chen’s penchant for combining esoteric research with interiority.

This piece was beautifully written and truly a unique one.
Not lacking in creativity and I have to say I know more about clams than I ever expected. I will also be frequently thinking about clams for some time now as a result and seeing how they apply to human behaviors and mannerisms.

Clam Down is an exploration of one’s self after divorce, transformation, and the world around us.

The depth and range from light hearted to despair is captivating.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read Clam Down by Anelise Chen.

Happy pub day to Chen, a professor of creative writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts. In her “creative nonfiction” work, the author explores the years following her divorce in which she dismantles the edifice of her self-understanding, unearths her overbearing parents’ stories in order to rebuild these relationships, and paves a path forward in her career. Although Chen structures Clam Down with a narrative arc, including movement towards growth, discovering a theory of love, and resolution of sorts, the book unfolds unconventionally.

Most evidently, she narrates the sections that share her perspective in third person, and she refers to herself as a clam. This metaphorical clam represents her chosen state of isolation and impenetrability, which she protectively created as a child and carried into her marriage, leading to its dissolution. Citing the writer Yoko Tawada, Chen opts to express herself “without centering the self. . .[but rather] to speak. . .as part of something larger.”

Then, Chen pairs her perspective with her father’s (Henry’s) perspective, interlacing these chapters based on her interviewing him. This effectively forms a multidimensional shape of the Chen family’s dynamics and creatively provides valuable background information about his parents’ emotional abuse, unjust treatment as an immigrant from Taiwan to America, and struggles to provide for his family while working as a computer software developer. When we learn that Henry named his program “Shell Computing,” the author submerges herself into self-transformation because she sees the family resemblance to hide oneself for protection. This leads Chen to recognize how her father has been shaped by his experiences of unfulfilled dreams as an immigrant: “her dad‘s clam persona wasn’t a reasonable adaptation to the environmental conditions he found in America.” Chen rejects closing up and simply submitting to the tides, thus pushing her to finish the project we have in our hands.

I enjoyed Clam Down and rate it 4 stars for the following four reasons.

(1) The clam (she/her) perspective is quirky enough to keep readers interested. Chen proves the mollusk-woman metaphor (analogy? allegory?) functions as a smart way to connect her story to her father’s impervious, calcareous shell. N.B., I kept wondering if Henry would wholeheartedly consent to his daughter divulging his secrets, but Chen briefly comments that he does in one of the last chapters. Meanwhile, it productively illustrates the idea of seclusion and protection from uncontrollable external forces.

(2) You know I adore a book that encapsulates academia. Not only does Henry struggle to finish his PhD in computer science, but Chen also works several jobs because adjunct teaching doesn’t pay the NY bills. Some of the scientific info on Darwinianism could be shaved off; however, her findings on Leonora Carrington and Georgia O’Keeffe intrigued me. In the end, Chen transitions from adjunct to full-time faculty at Columbia, and the conclusiveness may come across as slightly clean, but I celebrated this. A full-time post—what a dream come true.

(3) Chen wrote this story with a desire to include plot and character development. She successfully searches for a narrative lucidly and believably. By detailing her parents’ sacrificial love for their family unit, Chen learns to open herself up again and register their imperfect actions consistently stemming from love. Maybe I also hope to see healthy developments in families in real life. For this reason, I will certainly point my East Asian friends to Clam Down.

(4) I appreciate the manifold ways the author describes crying, e.g., “whenever they saw saline issue forth, involuntarily, from her eyes,” “perceived as a form of emotional incontinence,” and “then, in the privacy of her own room, she could finally released the miniature sea side contained,” and “[h]er eyes, blurred with fluid.”

My thanks to One World and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on June 3, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7583636210).

A very novel and at times extremely densely written book. Part memoir, part research paper, part fiction, I found this held my attention even if I don't think I fully grasped the full story. Still, I appreciate the book

This book was a real struggle for me. It’s supposed to be a memoir but didn’t read that way for me. Maybe the writing style held me up - I persevered but the book didn’t resonate with me. To be totally honest, I don’t “get” it. I felt like this is another one of those memoirs written about fairly insignificant circumstances. Nothing inspirational or even interesting. To be blunt, the book was boring, not something I would normally even finish. The only positive thing I can say about it is that I appreciated the author feeling like a clam and closing down after her divorce. Her writing in the third person as “the clam” was certainly creative and different. Not a book I can recommend.

An unusual read that I admit to having struggled with a bit, perhaps because I was trying to put it in a box- is it a memoir? fiction? science fiction? fantasy? I appreciated the concept of Chen turning into a clam after her divorce. Her relationship with her family and her journey to a different sort of life was interesting. And it's beautifully written, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This won't be for everyone but it's a worthy read.

At first I thought I was reading fiction. Then it was apparent I was reading a memoir. But there were all of these digressions about clams in myth and literature and nature and science and art and history. The author had struggled with how to label her book and finally settled on Creative Nonfiction.

Creative it is! This is was one of those books where I early on was not sure where it was going, but I trusted the author and read on. And was led me on an interesting and emotional journey.

Certainly, if she’s a clam, its because he’s a clam. A clam family. from Clam Down by Anelise Chen.

The clam is walled off, shut down. She seeks to understand why.

Her parents had fled Taiwan, a generation that survived ruin and dictatorship, immigration and racism. Her father lived separate from the family while developing a complicated computer program that could ‘do everything’, but which he no longer understands how to use. Did he leave for solitude and peace, or was it torture and loneliness? Her mother said that when she encouraged her daughter to ‘clam down,’ she meant to be strong.

The clam is writing a book about her father. She is accepted into a writers residency program where she can focus on herself and her book. She interviews her dad, seeking to understand.

The clam incorporates stories of her father’s life in Taiwan where history books were propaganda. Imagined interviews with an invasive Asian clam reveal the history of Chinese laborers in early gold rush San Francisco, a “city built on madness,” and the degradation of the environment.

This startling memoir about the search for wholeness, connection, and transformation takes huge risks for an emotionally impactful result.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

This book just wasn’t for me. The synopsis sounded more intriguing than the final product. This is an odd read, but it’s nonfiction and sometimes that doesn’t always work. I will stick with weird fiction instead. I just couldn’t relate with what the author was saying, I found her thought process to be downright confusing and pointless. The writing style was very dense. Either the author is not of this world or I am a very dimwitted person to not understand the message she was trying to convey. A total head scratcher of a book.

Best described as Creative Nonfiction, this unlike any other book was put on my radar by The Rumpus editor who thought I might be interested in interviewing the author for their website. She was right. I’ll share the interview once it goes live, but for now, some brief thoughts about the book itself. The author, going through a bad breakup, is sent a typo-containing text by her mother to “clam down”. She wonders what would happen if she took it literally and became a clam. Pretty soon she realises that she’s a clam who comes from a family of clams. Believe me, it makes all the sense when you read it, and I’m so glad I did!

“Clam Down” is a book by Anelise Chen. This is an odd book. The author, after some pondering, realized that she’d have to determine what genre of book this was - and decided upon “Creative Nonfiction,” which I didn’t know was a genre, but it fits this book. Part of it is history [interviewing clams, Darwin], part of it is memoir, part of it is trying to find oneself, and part of it is truly a metamorphosis. It’s a difficult book to explain to others (and I tried, ending up saying “if it sounds interesting, read it when it comes out”). Part of the book is in third person - “the clam” then part of it is given from the father’s viewpoint, and then the last from the first person. This book took me a while to get into - probably when Ms. Chen’s family interviews are written is when, for me, the book become more interesting. Don’t get me wrong - I like history and science, but until the stories of her father emerged, the book had a “how is this all connected” feel for me. This book did make me think more about mollusks and how at times people really do “clam up” or “hide in a shell.” Do read the Author's notes regarding language usage (I liked the justification) and about the book itself.

"A wondrously unusual memoir about a woman who, in the midst of mourning her divorce, retreats into her shell and renegotiates her relationship to solitude, shame, and connection.”

I love unusual memoirs, themes of transformation, as well as themes of solitude, shame, and connection, so this was exactly up my alley! The first two chapters were absolute perfection and reminded me of Shark Heart, another story of transformation that I love. Of Clam Down, I loved the play on language, the clam metaphor, the blend of scientific writing, magical realism, literary analysis, and of course the themes.

As the memoir went on, it became a little more real and a little less weird, and I kind of missed the weirdness. There was also more emphasis on Chen’s father than herself in the latter half of the book, with chapters written from his first person perspective, which weren’t as compelling to me. But overall, still a really interesting memoir and work of creative nonfiction! I would especially recommend this memoir if you appreciate form in writing.

This is a very bizarre read. It’s part memoir, part research paper, part self-discovery, part creative writing experiment. The author goes on a self-discovery journey after she divorces her husband and “transforms” into a clam. The book dives into the evolution of clams, and every other mollusk, every shell, how clams/shells are represented in art, in history, including a study from Darwin on shells. No wonder it took the author 8 years to complete this book. The path of research bounces from one topic to another, giving the reader a variety of research material in varying depths. Somehow, this research is to discover not only about herself but about her relationship with her parents, especially her father who created a super-secret accounting software called Shell Computing. Only in the final chapter, does the author really bring all the research together to understand the relationship between herself and her father.

A delightful interpretation of a memoir. The author becomes a clam after the breakup of her marriage. She becomes increasingly aware of and interested in shells as she tries to heal.

I loved the opening chapters and the author’s creativity throughout. I was not as compelled by the chapters told from her father’s point of view though I understood why they were included. Would recommend this to anyone interested in experimental stories or reimagining of a traditional memoir style.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

This was one of the books that RO Kwon listed in her annual list of books written by WOC. I loved the description of it, and ever since I saw the title I have been telling people to "Clam down," since it seems to make more sense than "Calm down," especially when people are upset. The author takes this advice literally when her mother texts her to Clam Down and she becomes obsessed with clams and other mollusks in her years long journey to find clam, or possibly, calm.

I really liked this book, and fell into reading it right away, even though it wasn't what I was expecting. From the description I assumed that the story would be very reminiscent of Kafka, but the author really leans into the actual metaphor of a clam — patient, accepting, letting come what may, and embracing the good and bad sides of these qualities. As the author/clam in question delve deeper into their clam-ness they also confront their parent's histories with their own clam journeys, and what that means for their futures. The first part of the book was very intriguing, the following sections less so, but I ultimately liked the story. And of course I'm a sucker for any book that partly takes place in Northern New Mexico.

“Clam Down” is a truly unique mix of countless literary genres, blending memoir, fiction, and fantasy into an introspective tale. Author Anelise Chen writes primarily from a second person perspective, centering on a protagonist known as “the clam” - a name taken from the accidental misspelling from her mother telling her to “clam down” over the course of her life.

Facing a turning point in her mid-thirties, the clam faces an unexpected divorce and simultaneously decides to change career paths to pursue being a writer. What follows is a non-linear storyline as we follow the clam over the course of her life, dive deep into her musings and memories, and also see her life from the perspective of her father, a former programmer who fails her understand his daughter and her life choices.

There are bursts of genius in this book, especially with the many literary and historical references throughout (to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, even Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings) and Chen’s exploration of her father’s past. I loved as well the inclusion of various photographs and scans, the nods to their Chinese heritage and language, and even the (sometimes confusing) screenshots from an old-school Linux computer. However, the writing felt too scattered for my personal liking and there are a number of sections that went on lengthy tangents that didn’t seem to contribute to the actual storyline. While I appreciated the both literal and figurative evolution and metamorphosis of “the clam” to her present-day human form, I think a little more editing and focus would have been beneficial.

"Clam Down" is one of those books that's hard to categorize—in the best way. Anelise Chen blends memoir, research, and personal reflection into a thoughtful exploration of solitude, transformation, and identity, all through the unexpected metaphor of a clam. Some sections, especially those diving deep (sometimes really deep) into mollusk history, felt like they took over the personal narrative, and I found myself wanting more of Chen’s reflections on her own journey. That said, the parts about her family—especially her father’s retreat into his own shell—were incredibly moving. It’s a unique, sometimes meandering, but ultimately fascinating read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/One World for the ARC!

If I had not read Emily Habeck’s “Shark Heart” or the aquatic erotica of “The Pisces,” I might have enjoyed this more or found it more original, but there seems to be a trend of looking at ways of blending or morphing into other species so it did not strike me as wholly original. Instead of fiction, this is a hybrid memoir about the writer’s personal crisis when her marriage implodes, grappling what it means to retreat into her shell, and what a literal interpretation of that looks like. The book includes other types of reclusive people alongside the author’s own life. I also would have preferred more of the author’s thoughts on her journey over mollusk details, but for readers who did not grow up next to the ocean, that might prove more compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/One World for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was invited by the publisher to review this book. In this memoir, the author goes through a personal crisis when her marriage breaks down, and she decides to explore what it means to close in on oneself or to hide. The theory is that when we cannot speak we "clam up" and then when we are in a different place we come out of our shells. In this memoir, we get a history of sorts of other recluse-type people, which was interesting, but because this is a memoir we also get the history of the author and I appreciated that readers were allowed into this personal element of the author's experiences. Like with all good thinking, delving into the past, analyzing and learning from it, allowed the author to then process the current state. I personally enjoyed how non-fiction and fiction were blended within this book, it lent the reader multiple layers to uncover and was a fresh take on this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/One World for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.