Saturday, July 31, 2021

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

 

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu - 288 pages

"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." - Amazon

This book was... interesting.  I read this one on audio, so it was a bit difficult to follow Yu's unique writing structure.  This book is set up like a screenplay/stream of consciousness.  I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I loved it either.  I do think this is a creative work of fiction, and I'm glad I read it, although I would probably recommend the print version over audio.

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