Interior Chinatown

Title:

Interior Chinatown

Author:

Yu, Charles, 1976- author.

Personal Author:

Yu, Charles, 1976- author.

ISBN:

9780307907196

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

270 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

"From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play."-- Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Asian Americans in popular culture -- Fiction.

Asian Americans -- Fiction.

Genre:

Fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION YU	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION YU	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

SOON TO BE A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood" ( Vanity Fair) and a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White , a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy--the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he's ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration-- Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

The inspired author of How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010) delivers another inventive drama about an Asian actor who dreams of becoming a star.Like his contemporary Jesse Ball, Yu is a novelist who plays endlessly with style, genre, and nonlinear narratives. Here, the story is delivered in seven distinct "acts" depicting the arc of Willis Wu, a young actor of Taiwanese descent who dreams of graduating from the pigeonhole of "Generic Asian Man" on television to "Kung Fu Guy," a shining star on the silver screen equal to the legendary Bruce Lee. Yu splits his storytelling between Willis' internal monologue, during which he talks to himself about what he's experiencing and how he feels, and the script for the TV show he appears on in a small role, Black and White, a police procedural featuring Sarah Green, an accomplished young detective, and Miles Turner, her African American partner. In spare but moving prose, Willis describes life among Asian Americans living as so-called foreigners, examines the history of bigotry against immigrants in the West for centuries, tells the sweet but sensible story of how his parents met, and relates how his part on the show evolves over time. It can be funny, as Willis explains the vagaries of the actor's life: "When you die, it sucks. The first thing that happens is that you can't work for forty-five days." The book could have ended more straightforwardly but the author couldn't resist an elegant twist, merging Willis' increasingly complicated emotional life with the plot of the show. As it all comes to a close, the author delivers a bittersweet yet affectionate ending for his endearing, unlikely doppelgnger.An acid indictment of Asian stereotypes and a parable for outcasts feeling invisible in this fast-moving world. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.