E. P. Tuazon’s “The Cussing Cat Clock” is a funny, sad, and often joyful meditation on the inner lives of teenagers and what it means to navigate an intensely white world as a Filipino adoptee. With Dru, our foul-mouthed guide, Tuazon has given us a narrator who could carry an entire novel with the sheer propulsion of her voice, and she’s accompanied by a cast of equally wry characters, including a woman who’s a magnet for neighborhood cats, an action-oriented best friend, and a verbal clock with a vocabulary that might be dirtier than hers. “The Cussing Cat Clock” showcases Tuazon’s talents for merging the strangeness of the world with the emotional impact of human connectivity—it’s a refreshing novella, and one worth spending an hour or two with.

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