Interior Chinatown

A Novel (National Book Award Winner)

By: Charles Yu

Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente

2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER

"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 comes 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 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. At least that’s what he has been told, time and time again. 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.

"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

excellent

creative way to depict struggle of Asian Americans, i really enjoyed listening and learning more of the perspectives. beautiful!

Everything good you’ve heard about this book is true

It’s like that. This deserves it all.

If you have ever, for any reason, been curious about Asian American struggle, or Chinatown, or false stereotypes or racism or all the things that still get oft unsaid because people are too callous or too ignorant or too afraid…

This will help you.

This will heal the scars you may not have known you had.

Glad I stuck with it

Worth the four hours but it would have been hard to stick with it for longer. it was hard to follow in places.

Interesting weaving of various elements.

I thought this was a strong weaving of film set, personalized story, history bits and discrimination issues. While I have no idea of the author’s personal history with film, his characters seem authentically portrayed. I felt renewed concern about media support or reification of discrimination and stereotyping. And, almost surprisingly, I felt quite validated as a woman.

The emotional ties the characters had to being Chinese.

There were times when it was confusing as to a performance or recounting a memory or reality vs a dramatized show.