Book No. 54 of 2020
It’s hard for me to decide if I loved reading this book because it’s just a good book, or if it’s because so many details were so exquisitely relatable to me and made me feel seen in ways I’d never felt before—but does it matter? I really enjoyed it, and that’s all that really matters.
The first part of the book is a quietly savage takedown of tech culture and halfhearted diversity/inclusion efforts, as well as a casual tour of familiar (to me) places in the SF Bay Area. (The Pacific East Mall in Richmond! Such fond, specific memories.) The second part of the book meanders through the American Midwest and the protagonist’s observations on Asian-American identity, casual racism, and the complicated aspects of being in a relationship with a white guy. The latter third-or-so of the book delves into Asian-American history, featuring news articles and writing about Chinese people in America (spoiler: it’s reeeeally racist) as well as a history of anti-Chinese legislation, and the weird, arbitrary ways that Asian people have been categorized in America. Overall the book dwells on a lot of themes that I strongly identified with, and was gratified to read and to have articulated.
Similar Reads
The first part of the book reminded me very strongly of Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley.
Lots of the same vibes as Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings—a very similar personal-experience-as-framing approach, with a focus on Asian American history, with a lot of similar points.
The historical references in this book were also very reminiscent to me of the last part of Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown.