Friday 25 July 2014

Sudden Prose Reprints: "Of the World's Largest Multilevel Parking Garage" by Cathy Park Hong



Here is the last selection from "Adventures in Shangdu," the eleventh of 17 pieces.


Of the World's Largest Multilevel Parking Garage


When Officials ignored their strike, the crane operators decided to be more aggressive. They worked all night. The next morning, train carriages, buses, limousines, bicycles, boats, and even helicopters swung lazily in the wind, magnetized by cranes. Negotiate, they cried, and we will free all your vehicles. Finally, Officials promised to bargain but when meeting day approached, the army rushed into the bargaining room and all the operators conveniently disappeared. Until Shangdu finds a new generation of qualified crane operators, no one knows how to work the cranes and release the vehicles. The magnetized vehicles sway in the breeze, rust in the rain. One driver was drunkenly passed out when they lifted his taxi up into the night. He has lost his voice, calling out to the shuddering city.


You can learn more about Hong and her work from her website, and you can buy Engine Empire from Foyle's by following this link.

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