Review: Interior Chinatown (by Charles Yu)

My Rating:  4 stars

This was definitely a “different” reading experience for me, one that was filled with playful jabs at Hollywood and the stereotypes that are so prevalently applied to Asians in modern society.  Written in the form of a TV show script (complete with Courier font and everything!), the story revolves around a protagonist named Willis Wu – who, after playing various minor and often non-speaking roles such as Silent Henchman and Dead Asian Guy, has finally worked his way up to the role of Generic Asian Man in a TV show starring Black and White (a black male cop and white female cop, respectively).  Though Willis eventually makes his way up to Very Special Guest Star -- the pinnacle of success for most Asians in the Chinatown SRO where he lives – Willis aims to follow in the footsteps of Older Brother before him and attain the highest level role that all Asian males aspire to: the role of Kung Fu Guy.   As he continually climbs the ladder in the hopes of eventually finding his place in the spotlight, Willis makes many surprising (and not so surprising) discoveries along the way, both about his family as well as the Chinatown he grew up in.  Throughout this journey, as Willis hops from one role to another, he begins to realize that the roles he is resigned to playing are not necessary aligned with the roles he “wants” to play.  The question then becomes whether Willis will be able to break out of the Generic Asian Man role he seems “destined” to play and instead follow his own path, even if it completely upends the reality he has believed his entire life.

It’s rare for me to come across a book quite like this one – a book that is funny, smart, innovative, daring, playful, yet at the same time, also deep and thought-provoking.  I love how the author Charles Yu was able to take his personal experiences as an Asian male in American society and transform it into a social commentary of sorts, satirically poking fun at various cultural stereotypes, but in a way that is good-natured and respectful.  A book like this one only works if it is written by someone who knows the subject matter intimately, and even then, it can be risky due to how differently each person experiences the world around them.  For me, growing up as an Asian-American in a neighborhood where there weren’t many people who looked like me, I could wholeheartedly relate to a lot of what the story’s main characters – especially Willis – went through.  Charles Yu was also spot-on where most of the cultural stereotypes were concerned – I found myself nodding my head in agreement throughout much of the story (and also laughing hysterically in the process).

This is one of those books that is very difficult to review because each person’s experience reading and reacting to it will be different depending on the place in society you’re from.  I personally found this one clever, brilliant, and absolutely resonant on so many levels, but of course others who read this may not feel the same way.  I would still recommend this book though…and who knows, I might even check out this author’s backlist at some point!

Received ARC from Pantheon Books (Random House) via Edelweiss.