Hi friends, happy Monday, I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m posting my review of Charles Yu’s novel Interior Chinatown.

Interior Chinatown by: Charles Yu: Told in a movie script format, we follow Willis Wu whose lifelong dream is to become Kung Fu Guy, the most respected role anyone who looks like him can get, or so he’s always been told. So he sticks it out playing Generic Asian Man or Disgraced Son over and over at the Golden Palace restaurant in Chinatown until he can get to his dreams. But when his dreams start to come true, he realizes, it wasn’t all he thought it’d be, that maybe there could be more for him. This was probably the most unique novel this reader has ever read. The way Yu bridged the gap between Chinese/Asian actors, race and Hollywood was so unlike anything this reader has ever read before. Taking Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes and flipping them all on their heads and giving it a new perspective; this novel was so well thought out and created. It was captivating and held an important message while also being humorous; it was such a delicate tightrope to cross, and Yu did an exceptional job of it. It was something really memorable because it was so distinct and different. This was so fast-paced and at times the reader was unsure what was truly happening because a scene would be playing out, then the fourth wall would be broken to take us out of the scene for a bit. It was effective though because it gave the story more to think about and a new viewpoint we may not have thought of before that moment; it was truly brilliant and something special. These characters were some of the most real feeling characters in the sense that they felt authentic and like real people. We felt their struggles, mostly our main character, Willis, but even the secondary ones on his journey, we felt their emotions too as they interacted with him. Even through this script format, we got a lot of character development and backstory, which really rounded out the story and made sure to bring everything together. This was such an original and thought provoking read; highly recommended.