Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 94, July 2014
I’m still on the folktale mythical search of short stories and came upon The Contemporary Foxwife by Yoon Ha Lee a few weeks ago.
Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean American who grew up in Houston, Texas and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy. She’s written over 40 short stories, some of which have been published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed and Clarksworld. She’s adept at weaving meaning into stories and The Contemporary Foxwife is just one example.
The story is a both science fiction and fantasy – a music student on a space station answers the door and finds themselves face to face with a mythical creature that few can see. The creature becomes a live-in maid for Kanseum Ong who has a strained relationship with her father. It’s not until Foxwife disappears does Kanseum realizes how much shes come to rely on him.
It’s a cute story wrapped up in a little neat package with a moral – easy to read and swallow all at once.