THE READER QUICKLY FORGETS THE TROUBLING METAPHYSICS AS WE'RE DRAWN INTO THE STREAM-OFCONSCIOUS FLOW OF REFLECTIONS, ANXIETY, ESTRANGED INTIMACIES, MEMORIES, SCHEMES, AND RESOLUTION

identity is. She’s a girl because her mother wanted one. She’s a celebrity dermal care technician because the corporation says she is. These stories are the true membranes of the title, keeping out the ugly truth and preserving a beautiful lie inside her mind.

Who is Momo? She’s an idea built from stories. Who tells those stories? Momo counts her mother and the corporation manipulating her—but I count more. By the end of the novella we can trace a wealth of influences on Momo, including Shakespeare’s plays, Bergman’s films, and countless novels. Most importantly, we see the fictions built by Momo herself as she processes her longings and aspirations into memories of her own making, designed within the prison of her mind. This, more than the setting, is what makes Momo’s story radically queer.

Physical reality may be odious and oppressive: Chi knows it, having lived through the final years of Taiwan’s martial law era, the terror of the AIDS pandemic, and the scourge of bigotry that still mars much of our