Organ Meats

Chang completes her surreal trilogy (following her debut Bestiary and short-story collection Gods of Want) with a kaleidoscope of blood, transformation, and friendship. On one level, this is a coming-of-age story about Anita and Rainie, best friends who are growing apart yet still connected by a bond no one has been able to break. Listeners must decode Chang’s dream-logic imagery and decide for themselves whether the girls are bound by the literal threads they tied to each other’s necks or by a more mundane childhood obsession. Jen Zhao and Annie Q each narrate a different girl, brilliantly capturing the changes in mood as Anita and Rainie are both alternately confident and lost. Guiding listeners through reality, myth, and metaphor with apparent ease, the narrators make it clear who holds the power in the girls’ relationship. They make Chang’s many grotesqueries feel normal, if not beautiful, as the story revels in viscera, waste, and pain. Life is messy, after all, and often uncomfortable.