In a lurching transition, this phrase is immediately followed in the next paragraph with ‘Dad had picked Mom out of a catalog.’ The change is uncomfortably jarring and Liu also moves the reader forwards in time, from one of Jack’s ‘earliest memories’ to ‘One time, when I was in high school’. She blows into the flattened animal in order to inflate it and it is this which breathes life into it – as the narrator says, ‘This was her magic.’ Her skills are first emphasised by the precision of the verbs which Liu uses: ‘pleated, packed, tucked, rolled and twisted’. The first appearance of Laohu, the origami tiger, associates him with comfort, reassurance and love as his mother makes the animal to ease her son from a fit of childhood ‘sobbing’. Importantly, the story starts with the creation of ‘magic’, a word the narrator uses himself about his mother.

In this way, Liu encourages the reader to make comparisons between Jack’s different attitudes and behaviours at various points. There are other quick switches in the story, notably of chronology. Liu also adds other details to make this magical truth persuasive, like ‘the capillary action’ which ‘pulled the dark liquid high up into’ the legs of the water buffalo which ‘jumped into a dish of soy sauce on the table at dinner.’ The magical paper animal is juxtaposed with the ordinariness of dinner, while the soy sauce gives the cultural background of the story. An important feature of the genre is that the story never acknowledges the elements of fantasy – they are narrated in exactly the same way as the rest of the story so that they appear as true. On the one hand there is the reality of life in Connecticut, with neighbours, school and ‘Star Wars action figures’ on the other hand we have origami animal figures which ‘pounced’, ‘growled’ and ‘vibrated’. Liu blends the vocabulary and style of realism with fantasy, a genre known as magical realism. Though it is in itself worded clearly and dispassionately, the letter creates a very moving final stage as Jack is made to revaluate his life and his relationship with his mother. In Ken Liu’s story this takes the form of the mother’s lengthy letter. Many short stories end with a twist, or a change in perspective which invites reconsideration of the story that has just been read.

Ken liu's the paper menagerie