Clam Down

Praise

“An inventive and emotionally compelling study of the contradictory impulses to connect and to hide.”— Vulture

“A dreamlike, albeit carefully studied, tale exploring introversion, hardening one’s exterior as a means of self-protection and reliance . . . The layering transforms this unusual memoir into a palimpsest. . . . A poignant and wholly original memoir of liberation through confinement.”— Kirkus Reviews

“Chen’s surreal tone and dry humor . . . elevate this above similar tales of self-discovery. For readers willing to take the plunge, it’s a treat.”—Publishers Weekly

“Chen’s genre-defying memoir turns her mother’s innocent typo—an exhortation to ‘clam down’—into an investigation of her own ‘clam genealogy’—that is, the family history and forces that led her to retreat into her shell following a divorce—as well as what we can learn from those most cloistered of sea creatures.”—The Millions

“In a genre-bending memoir on divorce, Anelise Chen dives into history, biology and emotional transformation in a book that defies comparison. She not only explores famous recluses, but also her father who disappeared into his work for a decade as well as the creatures who hide behind shells in an exploratory and enrapturing study of life after divorce.”—SheReads

“Chen presents . . . a personal yet expansive discourse about physical and psychic freedom, the burden of choice, and the consequences of stagnation.”—Booklist

“A marvel and a delight! . . . Full of heart and humor, expansive curiosity and gritty intimacy, this is a book that will stay with me forever—for its wild pulse, its compassion, its humility, and its abandon; for its gut-renovation of the first-person and its veins full of wonder.”—Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

“A marvelously funny and affecting memoir that reads like no other . . . Brilliant and unpredictable, it reveals something essential and hidden about the nature of clams, humans, inheritance, rational thinking, obsessions, and love. This book is the companion we all need.”—Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

“A modern love story embedded within a metafictional review of animal-metamorphosis tales placed within a cautionary environmental fable enclosed by an immigrant family’s saga. Anelise Chen disarmingly walks the reader through this blooming, elaborate, emotional game of shells.”—Eugene Lim, author of Search History

“A candescent, transporting metamorphosis from reluctant bivalve to woman.”—Lisa Hsiao Chen, author of Activities of Daily Living

“Ingenious, hilarious, and deeply moving, Chen’s work beguiles us, defies easy categories, and manages to be both wide-ranging and profoundly intimate.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward