Charles Yu

2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "One of the funniest books of the year. . . . A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire." —The Washington Post From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, 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. "Fresh and beautiful. . . . Interior Chinatown represents yet another stellar destination in the journey of a sui generis author of seemingly limitless skill and ambition.” —The New York Times Book Review

A Novel

Interior Chinatown

"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."--

Alex

Are you sure you’re not looking for something that you feel entitled to? Isn’t this a kind of narcissism?

What the hell is happening? This is not the way things are supposed to go. This is supposed to be when things fall apart but instead they are doing the opposite.

We lose ourselves and each other to what everyone wants us to be, the perfect capitalist worker bees and we have to fight to stay true to even the smallest bits of ourselves, to not lose who we are to each other.

He is lost now, in his work, in who they made him. Distant. Cold, perfectionist. Inscrutable. No descriptors, anymore, no age or build, just a role, a name, a shell where he used it be. His features taken away and replaced by archetypes, even his face hollowing out. 

This is how he became Sifu. This is how she lost her husband. How you lost your dad.

God how that fucking hits. But like opposite, bc ~mommy issues~

When she was dead, she got to be your mother.

Not a man so much as a personification, not a mortal so much as a deity on loan to you and your kind for a fixed period of time. A flame that burned for all yellow to understand, however briefly, what perfection was like.

Stas

There's too much tension in the courtrom. It's way too sexy in here. 

Your mother weeps, and dies. Weeps and dies. Weeps and doesn't die. Just weeps. Because now, your father is no longer a person, no longer a human. Just some mystical Eastern force, some Wizened Chinaman. Her husband is gone, Wu is gone, even Young Asian Man is gone. They took him away from her. He is lost now, in his work, in who they made him. 

It's raining inside your bedroom. You hope Old Fong is enjoying his nap.

Your relationship having turned into a pantomime, a series of gestures in a well-worn scene, played out again and again, any underlying feeling having long since been obviated by emotional muscle memory, learning how to make the right faces, strike the right poses, not out of apathy or lack of sincerity, rather a need to preserve what was left of his pride.

you dont understand how obsessed i am with this book

You wear the uniform: white shirt, black pants. Black slipperlike shoes that have notraction whatsoever. Your haircut is not good, to say the least. 

Black and White always looks good. A lot of it has to do with the light. They're the heroes. They get hero lighting, designed to hit their faces just right. Designed to hit White's face just right, anyway. 

Will better compose my thoughts on this one later, but really enjoyed it.

Katelyn Caillouet

hyun

Chris Dailey

Utilizing a screenplay'esque format, this novel explores the "stereotypical" existence of an Asian American in Hollywood and beyond. A satire with heart, the story follows the evolution of a "generic Asian man" pursuing his life's ultimately futile goal of transcending the box Asian actors are placed in. An allegory for the immigrant experience where race, family, tradition, bigotry and frustration are constantly present in daily life. Funny and absurd at times, the novel claims success is found on your own path, in your own time - though, sometimes, that isn't even enough.

lauren

some weird bits at the end from the lawyer… completely ruined the book

didn’t feel like this book explored the asian-american experience with depth. was looking for more intersectionality i guess?

My heart feels so full it could burst. What are we except people fulfilling predestined roles? Each our own archetype, insecure in our ability to be more, to be ourselves. This book was so powerful and a tv script being the form of narrative furthers the idea that we’re just actors playing a role, whether it’s Generic Asian Man or just Dad. We are ourselves and not ourselves and it’s beautiful.

a hollywood satire that plays with asian stereotypes on film (a much needed discussion) in a creative and approachable way. it incorporates some magical realism and manages to be touching and deep without losing the humour. cleverly written using tv screenplay structure while having said tv show rolling in the background as the would-be plot of the book.

violeta

Elena Kuran

Didn't plan to read this in one sitting but it was that good. I loved it

aywen

very quick read. conceptually very interesting the way it's written—inventive style reads like a cross between a screenplay and a novel. people are reduced to "parts" in a play, which is really not so far removed from reality when considering society's tendency to ascribe certain characteristics based on gender/ethnicity/class/etc. meta story-telling that doesn't really separate the fictional world from the interior fictional world...hence interior chinatown?? lots of played up caricatures; becomes clear that the author is trying to spin this in a way that encourages people to not fall prone to the boxes and stereotypes that binary america wants "us" to fit into. really enjoyable and cried multiple times unexpectedly, but it's meta beyond meta within meta??? easily confused myself trying to parse it all out/cobble together; would welcome a re-read

big ab

a really beautiful and hilarious portrayal of Asian stereotypes in Hollywood (and also the real life), it is written like a movie script and just so insanely creative and poignant. really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed the unique format and storytelling as a set for a no holds barred discussion on race. It slightly lost the plot on intersectionality, but felt tight otherwise. 

Karolina

Hannah Yang

"This is it. The root of it all. The real history of Asian people in America. Two hundred years of being perpetual foreigners."

Interior Chinatown is about the roles that Asian Americans play in America, exploring generations of attempted assimilation through the lens of actor Willis Wu, a Generic-Asian-Man-aspiring-Kung-Fu-Guy. The book is written in the format of a script, which some may find gimmicky, but I felt that it enhanced the sense of Willis and his family's generic-ness: the story could be about any / is about every Asian person's experience. Insert Generic Asian here. The anticlimactic point in Willis' career and the monologues towards the end were brilliant. In the monologues, Yu ensures that this book has something for Asians who relate to Willis but don't know what to do with that: I think they are resonant for many Chinese Americans who struggle to contextualize their experiences with racism against everything else in American history and the seemingly privileged position we now hold.

Part of me understands the reviews that are disappointed by the experimental format or the writing, because it doesn't feel like 'great literature' (though I have to ask who defines that. Feels Eurocentric) and some sentiments are repeated many times throughout -- but I think what this book excels at is capturing the gnawing sense of foreignness and inadequacy that so many Asians experience. Racism/anti-Asian sentiments/the assumption that all Asians are foreigners and should have accents/etc. is not news to most people, but I think it's hard for non-Asian people to understand how that feels on a daily basis, and this book does a pretty good job of capturing it. If it is tiring being in Willis's head for the few hours that you read this book, consider how that is Willis's whole life, and imagine how many other Willises there are out there in the real world. Isn't great literature all about inspiring empathy in its readers?

In so much of my recent reading from more diverse authors, there is a yearning not for stardom but to simply be seen as a person. The dream is not to progress from Generic Asian Man to Kung Fu Guy but to Generic Man; the dream is not to represent the Asian/Black/Native American/etc voice but to just present a human voice. What a small ask, and yet, in the world EXT. INTERIOR CHINATOWN, we seem to be a ways away from that dream.

Hilarious, poignant, ambitious. A brilliant masterpiece. This was a fun and painful read. It felt like laughing and getting punched in the gut and then doing it all over again. 

Brandon

altlovesbooks

"He is guilty, Your Honor and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Guilty of wanting to become a part of something that never wanted him."

This was a really good book, and my first addition to my 2021 favorites shelf. It's less a story and more a narrative framing device used as social commentary about the Chinese American experience. The book follows Willis Wu, "Generic Asian Man", as he describes growing up and wanting so bad to become what he thinks is cool -- Kung Fu Guy from TV and movies. He grows up, fights hard to become what he thinks the ideal Chinese American should be, then discovers that he didn't want that after all. 

What I described is only the framework of the book. The real meat and potatoes comes in the form of social commentary about what it means growing up Asian American, both on a personal level and at a societal level. How the roles one plays as an Asian American on television doesn't seem to end when you leave the set, that you always feel like you're performing for your fellow Americans, because they have a set idea of what an Asian American should be and how they should act. 

I really liked the point of view this book exposed me to. I found myself thinking a lot about what was said even when not actively reading it. While the storytelling isn't necessarily straightforward, I think the message is.

Ali Angco

Kei demand 

The rare kind of book that is enhanced by its audio experience. Joel de la Fuente deserves a kiss on the forehead for his narrating 😙

Stef

Finished this one in one sitting. Suka dengan konsep cerita nya yg di format as Series Drama TV menceritakan kehidupan Generic Asian Man witth whole level of Generic. Dikemas dengan gaya penceritaan script drama yg bagus dan semakin paham bagaimana prejudice Asian people in America. It's better when you reading it while listening the audiobook version.

Rachel D

In the hands of a lesser writer this ambitious concept could have failed spectacularly, but Charles Yu has made it work on every level. Not only is this novel entertaining and at times hilarious, but it also provides serious emotional weight and food for thought. Surreal and brilliant.

Taylor

Dave Eggers eat your fucking heart out

ACTUAL NETGALLEY REVIEW
I LOVED How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Charles Yu did not disappoint with Interior Chinatown. This book is a master class on minimalist writing for maximum emotional effect. It's Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? if that book was half as good as the author thought it was. It's beautiful and thoughtful and offers valuable critique of representation in media and EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ IT.

Stefanie  Uwah

I loved this but I’m also very confused

Sara

(3.5) so many thoughts but I really loved this!

ryan page

The question is:


Who gets to be an American? What
does an American look like?

Anna Brunner

Yeah idk. Really insecure in my unpopular opinion right now lol but yeah something about this just didn’t feel right. Analysis on the Asian experience in America is done well until he tries to discuss the experience of other racial groups in America. This was not done well. Maybe just my opinion? It made me uncomfortable. Also got lost in the last third & didn’t pick up my comprehension again until he started to explicitly tell me what I should have gotten from the book in the conclusion. Could be my own fault for being dumb since everyone else seemed to love this book but yeah not for me!!

Megan Lowe

Holy. Shit.
This book....
As someone of Chinese heritage, this book is everything to me. It’s heartbreaking, and heartwarming. It’s sad, but it’s hopeful. It tells the truth.
This is what life is like. Why we feel on the outside.
Life is not black and white. It’s also red, and yellow, and brown.
Please remember that.
We exist. We matter.

Interior Chinatown A Novel

Reviews

Highlights