Corey Fah Does Social Mobility

Written by Isabel Waidner

Narrated by Kit Griffiths

This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach.

Neon-beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with their partner Drew and eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular quest through their childhood in the Forest and an unlikely stint on reality TV.

Navigating those twin horrors, along with wormholes and time loops, Corey learns—the hard way—the difference between a prize and a gift.

Following the Goldsmiths Prize–winning Sterling Karat Gold, Isabel Waidner’s bold and buoyant new novel is about coming into one’s own, the labor of love, the tendency of history to repeat itself, and what ensues when a large amount of cultural capital is suddenly deposited in a place it has never been before.

“Buckle up! Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is a head-spinning, mind-bending roller coaster of fun, horror, and subversion. I love it.”—Kamila Shamsie

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892741484

Reviews for Corey Fah Does Social Mobility

[iansales_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award this year, but lost to In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (which I’ve also read). Having now read Corey Fah Does Social Mobility… nope, don’t get it. A mildly amusing and very surreal short novel set in some invented East European country that seems to be stuck in the mid-twentieth century, and… It’s done well, the prose is clever, but it’s neither amusing nor entertaining. I’ve read surreal fiction before, while I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, I can enjoy and appreciate it. Corey Fah wins a literary award, the Fictionalization of Social Evils award, but won’t receive the prize money until she physically collects the trophy. Which is some sort of UFO. And there are these wormholes between the present, 1967 and 1942. And through one of them comes Bambi Pavok, who is half-fawn and half-spider, and also Angry Young Man playwright Sean St Orton, who in 2024 fronts a TV show in which he discusses these wormholes. The story is a fast-paced read, in Fah’s voice, through the events following her winning the prize, appearing on St Orton’s TV show, Bambi Pavok’s trip back to 1967… and by this point, I’d no idea what any of this meant or why I should care. Normally, I’d read the book, mark it as “not for me”, and move on. But it was nominated for the Clarke Award, and I find that baffling. I don’t believe in gatekeeping genre fiction, so anything that uses genre tropes or is written with genre sensibilities, I’m happy to claim as science fiction or fantasy, no matter what the author says. But when the Clarke nominates books not published as genre - and sometimes even chooses them as the winner, as it did with In Ascension - then I usually feel the book is being presented as part of a conversation. And I can’t see how Corey Fah Does Social Mobility fits into that conversation. In Ascension, I can; but not Waidner’s novel. It puzzles me… and it assigns more importance to a novel that I don’t honestly feel deserves it. Huh.