Weike Wang

• A luminous, funny and charming novel from National Book Foundation ‘5 under 35’ Honouree, Weike Wang, about a young Chinese-American scientist must recalibrate her life when her academic career goes off-track • Chemistry has already received praise from authors Ann Patchett, Amy Hempel, Stephanie Danler and Ha Jin, as well as a deluge of critical and popular acclaim from US readers • Wang studied chemistry at Harvard, where she experienced firsthand the novel’s high-pressure academic environment. Her novel is an inside, honest look at the struggle to succeed as a female research scientist at a prestigious university • Wang’s prose is cutting, wry and witty—Chemistry is delightfully funny, as well as being filled with emotional depth • Wang was born in Nanjing, China, and learned English living in Toowong, Brisbane between the ages of 5 and 10 • Will appeal to fans of Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You

Chemistry

‘Outstanding...Unfolding in brief chapters studded with observations about her childhood and scientific facts, Chemistry may be the funniest novel ever written about living with depression.’ People Our unnamed narrator is three years into her post-grad studies in chemistry and nearly as long into her relationship with her devoted boyfriend, who has just proposed. But while his path forward seems straight, hers is ‘like a gas particle moving around in space’: her research is stagnating, and she’s questioning whether she’s lost her passion for her work altogether. The demands of her Chinese parents—who have always expected nothing short of excellence—don’t help. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. And for the first time she’s confronted with a question she won’t find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want? Over the next two years, this winningly flawed, disarmingly insightful heroine learns the formulas and equations for a different kind of chemistry—one in which the reactions can’t be quantified, measured and analysed; one that can be studied only in the mysterious language of the heart. Weike Wang earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health at Harvard University. She received her MFA from Boston University. She is a 2017 ‘5 Under 35’ honouree of the National Book Foundation and is a recipient of the 2018 Whiting Award. She lives in New York. ‘A spiky, sparkling slip of a novel...with a singular take of love, lab science, and existential crises.’ Entertainment Weekly ‘A beautiful, funny, eye-opening book.’ Elle UK ‘A genuine piece of literature: wise, humorous, and moving.’ Ha Jin ‘Science is an excellent lens for Weike Wang’s look at a young woman’s wonderfully skewed experience of love, ambition, loyalty, and, of course, chemistry.’ Amy Hempel ‘A clipped, funny, painfully honest narrative voice lights up Wang’s debut about a Chinese-American graduate student who finds the scientific method inadequate for understanding her parents, her boyfriend, or herself...Wang [has a] gift for perspective.’ Publishers Weekly ‘Starts as a charming confection and then proceeds to add on layers of emotional depth and complexity with every page. It is to Wang’s great credit that she manages to infuse such seriousness with so much light. I loved this novel.’ Ann Patchett ‘The most assured novel about indecisiveness you’ll ever read...Despite its humour, Chemistry is an emotionally devastating novel about being young today and working to the point of incapacity without what you should really be doing and when you can stop.’ Washington Post ‘A novel about an intelligent woman trying to find her place in the world. It has only the smallest pinches of action but generous measures of humour and emotion...Chemistry will appeal to anyone asking themselves, how do I create the sort of family I want without rejecting the family I have.’ New York Times Book Review ‘Equal parts intense and funny...The narrator’s voice—distinctive and appealing—makes this novel at once moving and amusing, never predictable. A wry, unique, touching tale of the limits of parental and partnership pressure.’ Kirkus 'It’s easy to get sucked into Weike Wang’s writing: it’s spartan and succinct, and so undeniably full of sucked-dry, smart humor, that you don’t realize just how clear, just how painful, everything she’s telling you is––and then it’s like she’s pushing on a cavity until you cry out.’ Asian American Writers Workshop ‘Reading Chemistry makes you realise that you don’t need a lot of words to tell a story—you just need the right ones.’ Sam Still Reading ‘A brilliant coming-of-age story.’ Culture Trip

Michelle

Chinchillas clean themselves in a shallow bed of sand. They don't ever go near water. Maybe the baby is secretly a chinchilla. We take her to an indoor playground with a sandbox and it doesn't seem to be the case.

The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half in liquid state and half in gaseous, both of which are probably poisonous.

laurenl

"A novel about a young Chinese woman whose graduate studies in chemistry go off track and lead her to discover the truths about her goals and desires"--

A Novel

Heather Margaret

It's such a simple and easy read, but I feel like the logic behind all of the writer's feelings is so well written. Sometimes you don't need the beautiful long winded analogies. I had many moments of just "getting" what the writer was feeling with the simplicity. It became one of my favorite books and I want more, please.

Karis Ryu

The ending asdlkfnweklfnwe. Heartbreakingly simple. But the simplicity of the prose echoes with intention, ambiguity, and a refreshing ambivalence toward this "one" kind of emotional expression that has been purported as the "universal" one. So what is passion and what is devotion? We're still figuring it out. And that's okay.

(view spoiler)[Also that part where she puzzles over medical explanations for why her chest is sore when girl is heartbroken, that attacked me because girl we've been there. (hide spoiler)]

charisa

i liked this one more than i expected. 

once i got past the choppy sentences (akin to the POV of someone whose first language is not english), i enjoyed the humor and candor a lot. it was reminiscent of the idiot in some ways? the science trivia bits were pretty overdone (how very middle school kahoot of you), and i definitely raised eyebrows at that ending, but overall, it was fun and compelling. very human!

linda

This is one of the most beautiful books I've read. Never has any other book resonated so much with me - the struggles of being an outsider, the stress from being forced to keep up with the high expectations associated with a model minority, and the trauma from loved ones who break you down. Her emotions and pain were so well articulated. Weike Wang's writing was elucidating, funny, and authentic. From the first page, I was hooked, and I read the entire novel in one sitting. 

As a Chinese-American teenage girl, everything, from the chemistry references to the various depictions of Asian parenting to the line about not wearing new clothes until they did not fit, felt so relatable. This is truly a wonderful book, and I would recommend it to all of my friends.

Katie Chua

read a nytimes review that called it the "anti coming-of-age" and i felt that. also i just felt this book, in general, with where i'm at right now ... it was a good read for this time. might come across as annoying or not very interesting or new if you're not in that place but the parts i really identified with ... i really identified with

雪 xue

many thoughts… too much too personal to be shared on goodreads but thank you weike wang, i am just like you

What resonated with me the most is the way the narrator understands the difficulty of having immigrant parents and never truly justifies that feeling of being a sheep. We do it because we feel it is what is owed and not because we don’t see ourselves as individuals. I don’t think children are ever truly separated from their parents. 

I love everything about this book. The way it's written, the story, the science, the personality, the subject. This book spoke to me about what you "should" do vs what you want to do. The relationship between parent and child and the effect it has on us.
Brilliant!

Allison King

I think the description makes the book sound more cliche than it is- I found it very funny, rather moving, and mundane in a very comfortable yet thoughtful way.

Michelle Xu

4.5 stars
It wasn’t the most most satisfying ending but the whole book really spoke to me. I highlighted so many quotes all throughout. I heard it described as Dept. of Speculation for Asians and… it totally felt that way. I’d say it’s like Dept. of Speculation for Asians, people trying to figure out what they want to do with their life, and scientists. The book had such beautiful yet concise writing with smart and interesting metaphors that show how scientific principles, Chinese proverbs, and historical facts all relate to life. 

This is such a vague review but honestly I just loved reading about the life of this main character struggling to make sense of her life and live life for herself. It follows her growth throughout two or so years as she begins to understand her relationship to science, her career, her parents, and her relationships.

B. K.

4.5 stars. So glad I picked this up. It explores failure and not living up to expectations- your own or others'- but in a straightforward way that managed not to be depressing. The tone of it was funnier than I expected, and I liked the scientific facts scattered throughout.

Kevin Juneos Mei Le

Isabella Brouwer

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award A Washington Post Notable Book One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Ann Patchett on PBS NewsHour, Minnesota Public Radio, PopSugar, Maris Kreizman, The Morning News Winner of Ploughshares’ John C. Zacharis Award Winner of a Whiting Award A Belletrist Amuse Book At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of Weike Wang’s debut novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud (or at least satisfied), and her successful, supportive boyfriend has just proposed to her. But instead of feeling hopeful, she is wracked with ambivalence: the long, demanding hours at the lab have created an exquisite pressure cooker, and she doesn’t know how to answer the marriage question. When it all becomes too much and her life plan veers off course, she finds herself on a new path of discoveries about everything she thought she knew. Smart, moving, and always funny, this unique coming-of-age story is certain to evoke a winning reaction.

Chemistry

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