The Next Train Home by Alan Lin

PRESS 254 Handmade Hybrid/Multigenre Chapbook. 32 Pages. Saddle Stitched.

The Next Train Home by Alan Lin aims to capture the loneliness, longing, and hope of the figurative sailor lost at sea, doing their best to sail their ship homeward. Through autobiographical fiction, historical narratives, secondhand translations, and otherwise collaged genre mashups, this chapbook presents a nostalgic and hopeful exploration of the notions of home. Despite their variety in style, tone, and shape, these writings tread through the same shaky waters of the author’s personal conflicts with identity and faith.

The Next Train Home rides upon two common thematic currents. Firstly, multiple pieces provide an overarching exposition on Taiwan’s political and cultural landscape. These Taiwanese snapshots range from magically reimagined memories to brutal impressions of oppressive and tragic historic events. Secondly, running parallel to the dialogue on national identity is the expression of the existential struggle on life after death. More precisely, the soul is subjected to the tension between doubt and faith in which it wonders if it must embrace the despair and fear that there is just silence at the end, or rather, that it must endure this mortal coil as it awaits a joyous homecoming and a glorious return to form.