The Cleaners

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10 of ‘24.

A bit of a thinker — ruminates on the power of memory (and empathy) in a fantasy way, where people imbue memories on physical objects by touching them, and people can relive those memories by touching that object again. An intense concept - I think the short story element was a detriment here.

Texreader Ooh sounds good…if it were a novel 10mo

Melismatic @Texreader I feel the same way! Great idea, too short of a medium (edited) 10mo

24 likes2 comments

fredamans

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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Strange and magical! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read full review: http://www.fredasvoice.com/2021/10/the-cleaners-ken-liu-42.html

18 likes

Literary_Siren

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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I have no idea what fairytale this was supposed to be originally but I liked it either way! Super interesting plot. I feel like it could be a full length novel.

Cortg Ooh. I was thinking about giving my book club a “genre choice” the next round of book pickings and doing a fairytale/folktale retelling option for my month. 4y

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Mandigolightly

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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I‘ve read other things by this author, and he really is a master of short form. The world building was exquisite on such a short piece. Very profound

Eyelit This one was so interesting! 4y

Mandigolightly @Eyelit agreed! It almost didn‘t fit the collection because it was so profound! 4y

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jessinikkip

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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This is another book in the Faraway Collection and in this story, a man named Gui inherits his fathers cleaners. They dont clean clothes but instead memories from objects. A woman named Clara comes in wanting her entire house cleaned, but Gui knows people tend to change their minds. Will she?
#121in2021 #Faraway

37 likes

Preciouz29

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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Enjoyed this the best out of the series.

klbwriting

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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This was interesting. I love the idea behind the memories and this world that was built in this short story felt like it could be used for a full novel. Super cool read.

Rehesina

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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I'm really surprised by how good this series of short stories is! But I mean these are also published authors who've had editors sift through their work and fix it and that makes a huge difference in quality.

Can't wait to get through the rest of this series!

#kindleunlimited #bookly

15 likes

GreenGrl87

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

We all need to be reminded, from time to time, that we‘re better than we remember.

6 likes

truthinfiction

The Cleaners | Ken Liu

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Ken Liu is one of my favourite authors. His writing elucidates the fabric of humanity and the essence of being a human, having feelings, memories, joys, sorrows. He makes the abstracted tangible and then turns it over in his palm to reveal various facets of it, its texture, and how the sunlight is absorbed and sometimes reflected by its surface. Available for free with prime reading and kindle unlimited. 27 pages long. Continued below. 👇

truthinfiction Another thing that I loved is how Liu shows us the difference between how we see people and how far off the mark we often are. How narrow, shallow, and limited our perceptions are compared to the depths, breadths, and poignant inner lives of other people. 4y

Nute Excellent review! All of that gain from a novel of 27 pages. I‘m intrigued about any insight on perception and misconceptions especially as we are quick to reach a conclusion (a judgement) prior to a deeper informative gathering of knowledge or as you so eloquently put it...finding out about “the depth, breadths, and poignant inner lives of other people.” A truth that puts us at a loss for the experiences of many impactful relationships! 4y

truthinfiction @Nute Indeed! I have read a story from multiple PoVs before but this particular realisation of how different people might be from how they present themselves to the world was brought home by Liu's masterful writing. 4y

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