Book No. 3 of 2021
I remember “discovering” this at Strand Books in NYC in 2018 or 2019; one of my reading goals this year is to clear the backlog of books that have been on my list for literal years, so expect me to write about a lot of books that came out in the past decade, haha.
Useful Phrases is the type of book that I find incredibly comforting: short stories from the perspectives of Asian immigrants and first-gen Asian-Americans, exploring well-worn but evergreen themes of belonging, multiculturalism, childhood and parenthood, otherness, etc. Lots of moments of being “seen” here, down to incredibly specific details (I could see the geographic markers of the Bay Area so clearly!)
The stories are unlinked to each other (I spent some time looking for connections a la Sour Heart or If I Had Your Face) and span decades and continents; themes vary (one story focuses on unprocessed grief and guilt, another on adolescence, and one features quasi-supernatural elements) but they are all tied together by what Cathy Park Hong terms minor feelings.
P.S. It’s always super fascinating to see how different Asian-American writers depict multilingualism in stories; Chai uses romanized Mandarin (without the explanations that indicate a default type of audience).
Similar Reads
Similar themes in short story form: Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart, Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie.
Similar themes in long-form fiction: Min Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires, Meng Jin’s Little Gods, Rachel Khong’s Goodbye, Vitamin, Shawna Yang Ryan’s Green Island, Vanessa Hua’s A River of Stars, most things by Amy Tan.