Gunk Baby, Jamie Marina Lau
Gunk Baby, Jamie Marina Lau
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Gunk Baby
A Novel

Author: Jamie Marina Lau

Narrator: Anthea Greco

Unabridged: 10 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/13/2022

Synopsis

The suburbs of Par Mars. Two shopping centers, rows of estates, and thematically designed neighborhoods.Twenty-four-year-old Leen is going to open an ear-cleaning and massage studio in the Topic Heights Shopping Centre, taking her mother’s Chinese ritual to the West to bring people back to their bodies.But something is not quite right in Par Mars. Managers are being attacked, and when Leen befriends Jean Paul, a pharmacist who is obsessed with a cryptic online forum, she finds herself involved in a community that is intent on disrupting the routines of capitalism in increasingly troubling ways.With a fierce intellect and masterful storytelling, Jamie Marina Lau brings to life a world that is devastatingly close to our own. Taking aim at consumerism and class, orientalism and the Zen movement, violence and middle-class boredom, Gunk Baby is inventive, unforgettable, and from a voice younger, newer, and more critical than most.

About Jamie Marina Lau

Jamie Marina Lau is a twenty-three-year-old multidisciplinary writer and artist. Her debut novel Pink Mountain on Locust Island won the 2018 Melbourne Prize Readings Residency Award; was shortlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize, the 2019 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, the 2018 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and the Australia Literature Society Gold Medal. Her writing can also be found in various publications. She is currently in the process of writing her second novel, Gunk Baby, working on various projects, and producing music.

About Anthea Greco

Anthea Greco is an actress and has done stand-up at LA’s famous Laugh Factory. After minoring in theatre studies alongside her degree of Psychological Science, Anthea went on to study at the Acting Studio at VCA and the Full Time Acting Program at Howard Fine Acting Studio, Australia. She lives and works between LA and Melbourne.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily on December 22, 2023

[URL not allowed] A slow building thriller on consumerism and the dangers of banality and resentment. With a relatable voice against the backdrop of the universally recognizable and versatile shopping center, this novel discusses the hugely capitalist influence on modern cultur......more

Goodreads review by Oanh on July 10, 2021

This felt to me like the supposedly biting commentary was either missing or too subtle for me to pick up on it. Anyway, I persisted and finished, and am still mostly left with *shrug*. Sort of like setting off to go shopping and then remembering that I really don't like shopping, and it leaves me fe......more

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on July 07, 2021

Gunk Baby is an inventive, compelling and provocative novel rich in social commentary and the innate beauty of several different cultures. Throughout a childhood spent moving between different countries, one thing was constant for Leen. The local shopping centre. Within those complexes, the familiar......more

Goodreads review by Siobhan on April 21, 2021

Gunk Baby is a book about consumerism, capitalism, and class, as an ear-cleaning shop is opened in a shopping centre being taken over by a minimalist chain. Leen is twenty-four and just opening an ear-cleaning and massage shop in a shopping centre in Par Mars, a suburban land of housing estates. At......more

Goodreads review by Isabelle on September 19, 2024

2.5, but rounding down for disappointment. I really wanted to like this book. I was drawn in by the synopsis on the back, but ultimately let down by what the book held within. The major issue I had with Gunk Baby was the narration style of protagonist, Leen. She was in a perpetual state of boredom.......more

Quotes

“Taking aim at consumerism, class,and orientalism, Gunk Baby is an original and unforgettable read.” Cosmopolitan

“A dissociative meditation on a world that has come to feel increasingly meaningless.” The Guardian (London)

“Speaks to the disconnect of the present generation and to the bleak, capital-driven path humanity took to get there. An audacious, nihilistic novel.” Australia Book Review

“A disorienting and sinister consumerist dystopia. Gunk Baby is the blackest sort of satire on post-industrial anomie, though it has a sharp sense of intellectual playfulness too,” Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

“Funny, bold, capacious…this book mirrors modern life.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
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