Harare Review of Books

224 pages. Published July 16, 2024 by Coffee House Press. Fiction.

---

I’m coming to know Coffee House for surreal and unusual reads; Fog and Car falls neatly into this category. It took me a while to get into this novel’s structure: alternating POVs of the two main characters, Fog and Car, who are recently divorced but who are still linked emotionally and also through a strange friend of Fog’s, named Frank. The story starts off as a kind of review of post-divorce life: the analysis, memories, regrets, self-justification to some degree even as you know you still love the other and still make room for them, etc. But things get otherworldly when Car sees Frank—or thinks she does—on the street, and spends a few days obsessively following (stalking) him before she approaches him. After that—well, Reader, your guess is as good as mine. Soul-swapping, a psychic, weird parties, and more.

I did enjoy it. I also don’t know what I read—which isn’t a bad thing, but doesn’t make for a good review. It feels like Lim took a couple of random threads and a basic premise—this couple, post-divorce—and wove a web. It’s a story, with large holes. It’s memorable, and poignant on divorce, and trying to pick up the pieces after.

Many thanks to Coffee House Press and Edelweiss for early access.