“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.