Thursday Book Group MPL-Interior China Town by Charles Yu
Interior ChinaTown by Charles Yu, Joel de la Fuente, et al.
Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a protagonist even 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 he is always 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. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more.Playful
but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is
Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet.