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Review of The Proper Care of Foxes

Christmas Staff Picks: The Proper Care of Foxes by Wena Poon recommended by Kah Gay — When a storyteller spins not one but multiple yarns involving characters and places as variously colourful as their names, readers know better than to expect a cookie-cutter tour. Tale after tale, Wena Poon makes it a point of honour to bring together the seemingly unconnected: garage sale items become polished gems featured in classified ads (“Reuse, Recycle”, the opening story); Regina the pragmatic Hongkonger meets Siegfried, a hedonist with a taste for Italian opera… Oddly, I found myself at home in the helter-skelter world of The Proper Care of Foxes. Because the fantastical combinations engineered by Wena Poon are grounded in storytelling as sound as it is inventive, and informed by an understanding true to our cosmopolitan present. Kah Gay has been variously described as a horse, a ladybug, an energiser bunny, a wolf, a German Shepherd, and a unicorn. Deep within, he identifies himself (sometimes) with the common spud, and aspires towards editorial excellence in the shadow of Max Perkins and Diana Athill. — Download our holiday gift guide here. All eight titles in the guide are at 20% off, exclusively at our webstore only until Boxing Day!

Christmas Staff Picks: The Proper Care of Foxes by Wena Poon

recommended by Kah Gay

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When a storyteller spins not one but multiple yarns involving characters and places as variously colourful as their names, readers know better than to expect a cookie-cutter tour. Tale after tale, Wena Poon makes it a point of honour to bring together the seemingly unconnected: garage sale items become polished gems featured in classified ads (“Reuse, Recycle”, the opening story); Regina the pragmatic Hongkonger meets Siegfried, a hedonist with a taste for Italian opera…

Oddly, I found myself at home in the helter-skelter world of The Proper Care of Foxes. Because the fantastical combinations engineered by Wena Poon are grounded in storytelling as sound as it is inventive, and informed by an understanding true to our cosmopolitan present.

Kah Gay has been variously described as a horse, a ladybug, an energiser bunny, a wolf, a German Shepherd, and a unicorn. Deep within, he identifies himself (sometimes) with the common spud, and aspires towards editorial excellence in the shadow of Max Perkins and Diana Athill.

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