My Rating: 4.5 stars
This one doesn't publish until February 2022, but I received an advance copy early for review and I'm so glad I did, as I enjoyed it immensely. Supposedly this is a modern day retelling of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, but as I've never read that Russian classic, any parallels were lost on me. Instead, I was able to experience Lan Samantha Chang's exquisite novel on its own merit and I was honestly quite impressed with the brilliant way that the story was told. At its heart, this is an immigrant story about a Chinese man named Leo Chao who settled with his wife Winnie in the small community of Haven, Wisconsin over thirty five years ago. Like many immigrants, Leo struggled to make a name for himself in a community where very few people looked like him, but eventually he was able to open Chinese restaurant The Fine Chao — though it can be argued that his true crowning achievement was having three handsome sons to carry on the family name. The eldest, William (who goes by the nickname "Dagou" or Big Dog), the head chef at the restaurant, is charismatic and larger than life (in both physical stature and personality), while second son Ming is the most successful, having built his own career and life away from the family; the youngest, James, is the good son — the college pre-med student who is passive, obedient, and full of love for everyone. All three sons are reuniting for Christmas in the small town where they grew up, called to gather by their mother Winnie, who has moved out of the house she shared with their father, giving up all her worldly possessions for "tranquility" at the Spiritual House that is run by Head Abbess Gu Ling Zhu Chi. We quickly find out that the family patriarch, the man responsible for serving some of the finest Chinese food this side of Wisconsin, is actually despised and hated: by most of the town due to him being an "outsider" whose success in pursuing the American Dream is resented by those in his predominantly white community who feel he is undeserving, and also by his own family due to him being a brash, tyrannical narcissist and philanderer who has no respect for his wife and also delights in mocking his sons (in other words, he pretty much lives for terrorizing his family). It is almost time for the annual Chao family Christmas party and even though things will be different this year with all the issues in their family, a tradition is a tradition and the party must go on. But after the party, Leo Chao is found dead — presumably murdered — in the basement of his restaurant and his sons suddenly find themselves thrust into the spotlight when one of them is accused of killing him. That spotlight tightens even more during the trial as intimate details about the family's dysfunctional dynamics are revealed — at the same time though, it also shines a light on the inherent prejudices of a seemingly pleasant small town when its people are tasked with determining the fate of someone they've never considered as one of their own.
Given the premise of the story (a murder mystery involving the American-born sons of Chinese immigrant parents), I was actually expecting this to be a typical immigrant story, but it turned out to be very different (in a good way). Like many immigrant stories, this one also highlighted the hardships and sacrifices as well as the injustices that the members of the immigrant family endured, however what surprised me was how the author, Lan Samantha Chang, was able to tell the story so masterfully in a way that was humorous and witty yet also respectful and good-natured. Of course, suffering (as well as people dying) is no laughing matter and the prejudice that immigrants in this country face is a serious issue to contend with, but to be able to approach these difficult topics in a way that brings needed attention to them in an honest yet humorous way is definitely no easy feat. As a Chinese American daughter of immigrant Chinese parents who grew up in a household that straddled two completely opposite (and at times conflicting) cultures, I could absolutely relate to the Chao family at the center of this story. The idiosyncrasies of various members within the same family, the unique pressures that define the lives of immigrant families, the struggles with identity and belonging, the oftentimes fruitless but nevertheless enduring effort to try and reconcile seemingly insurmountable cultural differences, the micro-aggressions and unconscious biases that many of us who come from immigrant families can't help but be keenly attuned to (whether we want to be or not), the constant struggle between being embarrassed by and ashamed of where we came from versus a sense of prideand being grateful for who we eventually become — many of these shared experiences with various characters in the story resonated deeply with me.
I personally found this book to be clever, astute, funny, and yes, delightful in the sense that reading it felt like I was sharing in on an inside joke with family that only those of us who came from a similar place in society would understand. With all that being said, I am keenly aware that other people who choose to read this book may have an entirely different reaction to it, which, of course, is fine. I still wholeheartedly recommend it, regardless.
This one doesn't publish until February 2022, but I received an advance copy early for review and I'm so glad I did, as I enjoyed it immensely. Supposedly this is a modern day retelling of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, but as I've never read that Russian classic, any parallels were lost on me. Instead, I was able to experience Lan Samantha Chang's exquisite novel on its own merit and I was honestly quite impressed with the brilliant way that the story was told. At its heart, this is an immigrant story about a Chinese man named Leo Chao who settled with his wife Winnie in the small community of Haven, Wisconsin over thirty five years ago. Like many immigrants, Leo struggled to make a name for himself in a community where very few people looked like him, but eventually he was able to open Chinese restaurant The Fine Chao — though it can be argued that his true crowning achievement was having three handsome sons to carry on the family name. The eldest, William (who goes by the nickname "Dagou" or Big Dog), the head chef at the restaurant, is charismatic and larger than life (in both physical stature and personality), while second son Ming is the most successful, having built his own career and life away from the family; the youngest, James, is the good son — the college pre-med student who is passive, obedient, and full of love for everyone. All three sons are reuniting for Christmas in the small town where they grew up, called to gather by their mother Winnie, who has moved out of the house she shared with their father, giving up all her worldly possessions for "tranquility" at the Spiritual House that is run by Head Abbess Gu Ling Zhu Chi. We quickly find out that the family patriarch, the man responsible for serving some of the finest Chinese food this side of Wisconsin, is actually despised and hated: by most of the town due to him being an "outsider" whose success in pursuing the American Dream is resented by those in his predominantly white community who feel he is undeserving, and also by his own family due to him being a brash, tyrannical narcissist and philanderer who has no respect for his wife and also delights in mocking his sons (in other words, he pretty much lives for terrorizing his family). It is almost time for the annual Chao family Christmas party and even though things will be different this year with all the issues in their family, a tradition is a tradition and the party must go on. But after the party, Leo Chao is found dead — presumably murdered — in the basement of his restaurant and his sons suddenly find themselves thrust into the spotlight when one of them is accused of killing him. That spotlight tightens even more during the trial as intimate details about the family's dysfunctional dynamics are revealed — at the same time though, it also shines a light on the inherent prejudices of a seemingly pleasant small town when its people are tasked with determining the fate of someone they've never considered as one of their own.
Given the premise of the story (a murder mystery involving the American-born sons of Chinese immigrant parents), I was actually expecting this to be a typical immigrant story, but it turned out to be very different (in a good way). Like many immigrant stories, this one also highlighted the hardships and sacrifices as well as the injustices that the members of the immigrant family endured, however what surprised me was how the author, Lan Samantha Chang, was able to tell the story so masterfully in a way that was humorous and witty yet also respectful and good-natured. Of course, suffering (as well as people dying) is no laughing matter and the prejudice that immigrants in this country face is a serious issue to contend with, but to be able to approach these difficult topics in a way that brings needed attention to them in an honest yet humorous way is definitely no easy feat. As a Chinese American daughter of immigrant Chinese parents who grew up in a household that straddled two completely opposite (and at times conflicting) cultures, I could absolutely relate to the Chao family at the center of this story. The idiosyncrasies of various members within the same family, the unique pressures that define the lives of immigrant families, the struggles with identity and belonging, the oftentimes fruitless but nevertheless enduring effort to try and reconcile seemingly insurmountable cultural differences, the micro-aggressions and unconscious biases that many of us who come from immigrant families can't help but be keenly attuned to (whether we want to be or not), the constant struggle between being embarrassed by and ashamed of where we came from versus a sense of prideand being grateful for who we eventually become — many of these shared experiences with various characters in the story resonated deeply with me.
I personally found this book to be clever, astute, funny, and yes, delightful in the sense that reading it felt like I was sharing in on an inside joke with family that only those of us who came from a similar place in society would understand. With all that being said, I am keenly aware that other people who choose to read this book may have an entirely different reaction to it, which, of course, is fine. I still wholeheartedly recommend it, regardless.
Received ARC from W. W. Norton & Company via Bookbrowse First Impressions program.
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