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Interior Chinatown

Charles Yu (Goodreads Author)

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 43,471 ratings · 6,478 reviews

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. Every day, he leaves his tiny room ...more

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Hardcover, 288 pages

Published January 28th 2020 by Pantheon Books

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Nov 09, 2020 Roxane rated it really liked it

Wildly innovative; a perfect marriage of form and function.

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Oct 18, 2021 Yun rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The first Chinese came in 1815. . . . Why doesn't this face register as American?
At its core, Interior Chinatown is a meditation on the Chinese American immigration and assimilation experience. It tackles this through a heavily metaphoric screenplay about a Generic Asian Man forever stuck in the background of a police procedural called "Black and White." He is not privileged like White, nor is he oppressed like Black. Yet he is relegated to the sidelines, never able to be the star of his own
The first Chinese came in 1815. . . . Why doesn't this face register as American?
At its core, Interior Chinatown is a meditation on the Chinese American immigration and assimilation experience. It tackles this through a heavily metaphoric screenplay about a Generic Asian Man forever stuck in the background of a police procedural called "Black and White." He is not privileged like White, nor is he oppressed like Black. Yet he is relegated to the sidelines, never able to be the star of his own narrative.

I can see why this book received so much recognition. For such a quick read, it packs a punch. It's sharp, unusual, and compelling. To be honest, it left me a bit conflicted afterwards. On the one hand, it unearthed some feelings I generally try to keep buried, being a first-generation Chinese American immigrant myself. But on the other hand, it only just skimmed the surface of its potential.

One of the most interesting things about this book is its unique screenplay format. It took me a few pages to get used to, but once I did, I couldn't look away. Quite often, it's not clear if we're reading the perspective of the main character Willis Wu or the character that Wu is playing in the police drama. And I think that ambiguity is on purpose, since they are both characters limited by their circumstances.

Aside from the format, this book reads like a memoir to me, with the author putting a lot of himself into it. And as in all cases with memoirs, I want to respect the author's deeply personal experiences. However, his experiences don't always align with mine. And since mine are such a deeply ingrained part of me, it was hard for me at times to separate out my own personal feelings and approach this as a neutral party.

Because this subject is quite familiar to me, I was hoping for a deep dive. But while the book touches upon many topics—assimilation and the barriers against it, longing for a place to belong, the gulf between generations of immigrants, and the long term financial and emotional impact of discrimination and racism—it doesn't go far enough in any of them for me. But I believe most readers who don't have personal experience in this will find it insightful and eye-opening.

One thing this book solidly achieves is that it opens the door to a conversation about the Chinese American immigrant experience, something that had previously been lacking. I am always so heartened to see diverse voices and representation in literature. I hope this is just the beginning of Chinese American authors getting the space and recognition they need to share their stories.

Let me close up by offering a personal thought. For me, one of the most difficult things about immigrating to another country, especially one that does not share a similar language or culture, is that you end up losing bits and pieces of yourself in the process. When you think about it, a person's language and culture is intrinsic to the foundation of who they are. So in order to fully assimilate, you must renounce crucial parts of yourself and take on a new persona. It is an extremely difficult journey, but to do so and have your new country not accept you, that is heartbreaking indeed. Because then you are unmoored. You cannot go back to the person you were before, for that country and culture has left you behind. Nor can you go forward to your new country. You have become a citizen without a state, a person without a home. Your only recourse is to forge a new culture that is a bridge between the old and the new. But not many others can truly understand and share that with you, so you are forever trying to find that connection with the few who do. That is one of the defining characteristics of the immigrant experience for me. ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 Faith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, overdrive

This book is brilliant. It shows what you can do when you write with perception, humor and creativity about something you have experienced and understand intimately. No cultural appropriation here. He’s also one of the writers on the HBO series West World, so he understands TV too. The book tells the story of Willis Wu and his Chinese American family. Their story is interwoven inventively with the description of the generic roles that the Wu’s and other residents of their SRO play in a TV series ...more

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Apr 03, 2021 Sofia rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

*inhales sharply* *screams*
This book makes me feel seen.

Interior Chinatown is a humorous look at Asians in film and the roles Asians in general are forced to play. There's Kung Fu Guy, Generic Asian Man, Tiger Mom, Asian Seductress... Asian people are shoved into boxes that don't always fit them, and they're forced to conform.

"You speak English well. Really well. It's almost like you don't have an accent."
Shit. Right. You forgot to do the accent.

It's the little things that stood out to me ...more

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May 01, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

update: CONGRATS... nominated a National book award!!

Generic Asian man, Golden palace, ethnic recurring
Striving immigrant, kung Fu dad, The chase seven missing Asian, Chinatown

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book.
It’s oddly realistically relatable which at times felt ( to me), like a slap-in-the-face at my own stupidity!

It was funny - but.....I had to ask myself “why I thought it was funny”.

It was also dark. But why?

It’s also sad....
ha...
....that I ‘do’ understand. I ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 Meike rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020-read, china, usa

Now Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2020
You have to applaud Yu for crafting a unique narrative set-up: His novel merges the storyline of a TV crime procedural with the life of a young man who by his surroundings is only perceived as the "Generic Asian Man" - he is an actor trying to get a role beyond that of a clichéd Asian person, but he is also forced into the role of "Generic Asian Man" in real life. The whole effect is surreal and brilliantly conveying the strange loops in whic Now Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2020
You have to applaud Yu for crafting a unique narrative set-up: His novel merges the storyline of a TV crime procedural with the life of a young man who by his surroundings is only perceived as the "Generic Asian Man" - he is an actor trying to get a role beyond that of a clichéd Asian person, but he is also forced into the role of "Generic Asian Man" in real life. The whole effect is surreal and brilliantly conveying the strange loops in which a person who is reduced to a stereotype is trapped - certainly, the whole TV/actor part of the book can also be read as strictly metaphorical. Yu cleverly plays out his ideas by writing parts of the book in the form of a movie script, and the whole novel is typed in Courier (the font used in scripts).

The protagonist, Willis Wu, is perpetually living in an "Interior Chinatown", a prison of perceptions in which he is trapped - and he is not even Chinese, he is, like the author, of Taiwanese descent (the point of course being that all of Asia is frequently seen as monolithic). While Wu works hard and has the ambition to make something of himself, his range of paragons is limited by what Western society allows him to be, and breaking free of his role of "Generic Asian Man" to become "Kung Fu Guy" only means to conform to another stereotype - what is he to do to break the mold in an averse environment? How can he find himself, find happiness?

Apart from giving us Wu's perspective in interior monologue, Yu reflects contemporary American society and its cultural projections by inventig storylines for the police procedural "Black and White", featuring a clichéd woman and a clichéd black man who play the detectives - you get the idea: One is black and one is white, but the series also paints reality in black and white. Where is the Asian representation, what is Wu's role? And how do minorities, employed to project diversity, act towards each other? Yu's narration breaks down the barrier between reality and the fictional series within the novel, and everyone is forced to act constantly, cast in a movie they never volunteered to be in.

Now all of this is brilliantly thought out and highly inventive, but as the storyline is sparse and many parts are highly descriptive, clearly stating narrative puposes and sometimes even bordering on essay writing, the basic idea did not really carry over the whole distance (although the book only has 288 pages). While the repetitiveness is part of the whole point (see: strange loops), it certainly does not help the pacing of the text. But to be fair, this criticism also touches upon the field of personal taste, and I'm sure that many other readers won't mind the points I just addressed.

All in all, Charles Yu wrote a daring, innovative, intelligent book with an important message, and while I wasn't fully immersed in the text, this novel is certainly worth checking out. ...more

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Feb 11, 2021 Blaine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-book, trade-paperback, 2021, favorite-reviews

The question is: Who gets to be an American? What does an American look like? We’re trapped as guest stars in a small ghetto on a very special episode. Minor characters locked into a story that doesn’t quite know what to do with us. After two centuries here, why are we still not Americans? Why do we keep falling out of the story?

On one level, Interior Chinatown is the story of Willis Wu, a background actor on the show Black and White, a hilariously bad rip-off of Law and Order:

SHE’S the most acc

The question is: Who gets to be an American? What does an American look like? We’re trapped as guest stars in a small ghetto on a very special episode. Minor characters locked into a story that doesn’t quite know what to do with us. After two centuries here, why are we still not Americans? Why do we keep falling out of the story?

On one level, Interior Chinatown is the story of Willis Wu, a background actor on the show Black and White, a hilariously bad rip-off of Law and Order:

SHE’S the most accomplished young detective in the history of the department. HE’S a third-generation cop who left Wall Street to honor his father's legacy. TOGETHER they head the Impossible Crimes Unit, tasked with cracking the most unsolvable cases. When all others have failed, the ICU is the last hope for justice. When all others have failed, you call: BLACK AND WHITE. This is their story.

For now, Willis is Generic Asian Man, on the show and in his actual life. But if he plays his cards right, and gets lucky, he might climb the ladder all the way to the top, to the best role he can envision for himself: Kung Fu Guy.

Willis’s story of that pursuit is very funny. He works and lives in something of a meta-world, where the actors can talk to each other as themselves during scenes, and where there are extensive rules about how long you have to sit out when your character dies before going back to work. On this level, the book reminded me of one of my favorite books, Redshirts.

But there’s a second, larger, more important story being told here—subtly at first and then not so subtly—that explains why this book won the 2020 National Book Award. That story is about why Willis can only aspire to be Kung Fu Guy. About the stereotyping in the depiction of Asian culture on television and in movies. About the history of discrimination—in law, and later in practice—that has made it more difficult for Asian-Americans to assimilate in America.

This larger story is profound, and its core question—“Why doesn’t this face register as American?”—reminded me of the question repeatedly posed by Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me: “How do I live free in this black body?” While this book is far different in tone, it is ultimately grappling with similar questions of race and identity in America. Similar, but importantly not the same, because part of the book’s whole point is that while America hasn’t fully come to terms with the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws, it at least generally understands the scope of the problem. But because the historical mistreatment of Asian-Americans was not-quite-as-horrific as its treatment of African-Americans, America—this land of Black and White (get it?)—has no idea how to even conceptualize, let alone address, the legacy of its ‘second-class oppression’ of Asian-Americans.

Interior Chinatown is a great book. It’s told in a completely original fashion. It is consistently funny, even as the issues discussed get more serious. And it’s thought-provoking on a subject most readers have probably not often considered. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Highly recommended. ...more

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May 18, 2021 Regina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Setting: Interior Chinatown

Character #1: Generic Asian Man

Time: Present Day (sadly)

What a clever, clever book this is! Charles Yu’s award-winning 2020 novel is a lean, mean, satire machine, packing a punch (or karate chop, as he’d probably write with a wink) in a mere 288 pages. It’s written in the form of a TV screenplay, which creates a very meta rumination on life imitating art imitating life.

The protagonist, Willis Wu, is an extra for a crime procedural called “Black & White” (think “Law & ...more

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Sep 01, 2019 Charlie Anders rated it it was amazing

Wow, I love this book so much. Most books are lucky to be either clever or deep, but Interior Chinatown is both, and makes it look easy. Charles Yu has so much to say about the formulas that make up pop-culture storytelling, and the ways those formulas intersect with stereotypes.

Willis Wu is a bit player on a procedural cop show called Black and White (about a black cop and a white cop), and Willis aspires to rise to better roles, like Ethnic Recurring or even the most prized role, Kung-Fu Guy. ...more

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Jan 09, 2022 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021, e-book, edelweiss-review, contemporary-fiction

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is a 2020 Pantheon Books publication.

I had forgotten the premise of this book as I didn’t get around to reading it when it was first published, but for some reason, I thought it was a memoir.

When I started reading it, though, I thought I had better go back and study the synopsis, because I was extremely confused. Once I realized the book was satirical and written as though it was a script or screenplay, it started to make a lot more sense.

While satire can be Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu is a 2020 Pantheon Books publication.

I had forgotten the premise of this book as I didn’t get around to reading it when it was first published, but for some reason, I thought it was a memoir.

When I started reading it, though, I thought I had better go back and study the synopsis, because I was extremely confused. Once I realized the book was satirical and written as though it was a script or screenplay, it started to make a lot more sense.

While satire can be hard to pull off, Charles Yu nailed it perfectly. I have always believed that satire can be a great teaching tool. Approaching a topic in a comedic way, a ‘making fun of’, format can hold a mirror up to people, and can be blunt, cutting right to the heart of the matter, pulling no punches, but it is presented in a way that is easier to digest, and has a greater impact.

I think this book will make readers think and gives them insights they never considered until they took a virtual walk in someone else’s shoes for a while.

This book is a searing, scathing portrait of how Asians are depicted on the big and small screens in Hollywood. The Law & Order parody was written with an insider's flair. It was very funny- but also true and thought-provoking.

Yet, this book is so much more than the satirical humor. It’s history, it’s a very real struggle, an internal identity debate-which ultimately leads to a monumental realization and a triumph.

The format is creative- keeping everything with the context of a screenplay- and I do mean everything- on script and off. Willis/ Generic Asian Guy takes a poignant journey together. The last portion of the book- 'The Missing Asian Guy'- was beyond clever and SO good!

I thought this was a brilliant story. It was smart, funny, touching, and has an imaginative presentation and execution… and just maybe my first impression going in- that this was a memoir- might not be too far off the mark, after all.

Overall, I was very impressed with this novel. My reviews, as I often explain, are just ‘thinking out loud’ ramblings. They are merely my impressions and thoughts- my own personal experience with a book- so I rarely blatantly advise people to avoid or read/buy a book- but today I’m going to press the ‘highly recommended’ button!! A must read!!

5 stars ...more

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Mar 08, 2020 Doug rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2.5, rounded down.

I really hesitate to say anything at all about this, since I am sure there will be people screaming that my disenchantment is strictly due to 'White male privilege', but honestly, this novel will only be revelatory to someone who DIDN'T already realize that there is huge prejudice against Asians in not only Hollywood, but in general in the USA. It is really just one long, apparently autobiographical (and somewhat whiny), screed about lack of opportunities and stereotypical film 2.5, rounded down.

I really hesitate to say anything at all about this, since I am sure there will be people screaming that my disenchantment is strictly due to 'White male privilege', but honestly, this novel will only be revelatory to someone who DIDN'T already realize that there is huge prejudice against Asians in not only Hollywood, but in general in the USA. It is really just one long, apparently autobiographical (and somewhat whiny), screed about lack of opportunities and stereotypical film roles forced on Asian American actors, and as someone who worked in Hollywood for many years (working to create and ensure roles and jobs for People with Disabilities in film, theatre and TV, who - trust me - have it WAYYYYY worse than Asians) ... none of this came as a surprise.

Even the 'innovative' format of presenting most of it in the guise of a screenplay did not really impress me, since half of what I read are play/film scripts, so it just seemed pro forma to me. It's not horrible, and was intermittently entertaining and humourous, but the writing itself never elevates from the pedestrian. I read it in less than a day, and it moved quickly, since the format means it is really only about the length of a 100-125 page novel presented in more traditional terms.

Compounding the problem is that protagonist Willis Wu remains a bit of a cipher - and what we DO know about him is made up of fairly stereotypical 'Asian attributes': he is ambitious, studious, respectful to his elders and family, preoccupied with his martial arts (though we are only TOLD that, and never shown it). Worse, his relationship with his to-be wife Kitty (aka Sexy Young Asian Female #1) is based almost solely on his appreciation of her looks. In effect, Wu actually IS Generic Asian Guy #3!

From all the hoopla, hype and acclaim, I was just expecting much, MUCH more. I think all the awards attention is really just a valiant attempt to diversify the nominees, rather than any inherent value. PS IMHO, Shuggie got ROBBED of the NBA in favor of this mediocrity - glad the Bookers got it right ... for ONCE! ...more

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May 24, 2021 emma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, literary-fiction, recommend, owned, diverse, authors-of-color, 4-stars, project-aapi, non-ya

There are aliens walking among us.

There are people who look like us, sound like us, walk like us, presumably appreciate the cinematic stylings of America's Sweetheart Jennifer Garner like us...

But their brains are nothing like ours.

Their brains work entirely differently, synthesizing the same data and experiences us lowly humans have into completely creative and unique worldviews that lead to masterpiece-level works of art. Like, I am hearing that that perpetually present 24/7 crowd in front of ...more

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Mar 09, 2020 lark benobi rated it liked it

Shelves: pantheon, 2020-asian-american-authors, 2020, male-identified-authors, books-that-make-me-laugh

This work is marketed as a novel, laid out as a screenplay, and requires the concentration of poetry.

On its surface the work (I hesitate to call it a novel) seems to be a critique of typecasting in the entertainment industry, but in reality that’s just the envelope for a far deeper exploration of identity, because the work demonstrates through this unique format the way its characters, and through extension every one of us, is a prisoner of identities imposed on us by others. When the protagonis ...more

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Oct 06, 2020 Matthew rated it it was amazing

INT. BOOKSTORE

Per usual you walked in with a list. But the list this time around wasn’t comprised of suggestions from friends and/or fellow Goodreaders. Nor was it comprised of the latest must-have books that had come out that particular week. Nope. This list was made up of several works that had flown beneath your radar, if the radar had even picked up on them in the first place.

Awards season has a tendency of doing exactly this, of bringing attention to books otherwise unknown to you, sparkin ...more

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Feb 04, 2020 Bkwmlee rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, asian-experience-or-author, edelweiss

This was definitely a “different” reading experience for me, one that was filled with playful jabs at Hollywood and the stereotypes that are so prevalently applied to Asians in modern society. Written in the form of a TV show script (complete with Courier font and everything!), the story revolves around a protagonist named Willis Wu – who, after playing various minor and often non-speaking roles such as Silent Henchman and Dead Asian Guy, has finally worked his way up to the role of Generic Asia This was definitely a “different” reading experience for me, one that was filled with playful jabs at Hollywood and the stereotypes that are so prevalently applied to Asians in modern society. Written in the form of a TV show script (complete with Courier font and everything!), the story revolves around a protagonist named Willis Wu – who, after playing various minor and often non-speaking roles such as Silent Henchman and Dead Asian Guy, has finally worked his way up to the role of Generic Asian Man in a TV show starring Black and White (a black male cop and white female cop, respectively). Though Willis eventually makes his way up to Very Special Guest Star -- the pinnacle of success for most Asians in the Chinatown SRO where he lives – Willis aims to follow in the footsteps of Older Brother before him and attain the highest level role that all Asian males aspire to: the role of Kung Fu Guy. As he continually climbs the ladder in the hopes of eventually finding his place in the spotlight, Willis makes many surprising (and not so surprising) discoveries along the way, both about his family as well as the Chinatown he grew up in. Throughout this journey, as Willis hops from one role to another, he begins to realize that the roles he is resigned to playing are not necessary aligned with the roles he “wants” to play. The question then becomes whether Willis will be able to break out of the Generic Asian Man role he seems “destined” to play and instead follow his own path, even if it completely upends the reality he has believed his entire life.

It’s rare for me to come across a book quite like this one – a book that is funny, smart, innovative, daring, playful, yet at the same time, also deep and thought-provoking. I love how the author Charles Yu was able to take his personal experiences as an Asian male in American society and transform it into a social commentary of sorts, satirically poking fun at various cultural stereotypes, but in a way that is good-natured and respectful. A book like this one only works if it is written by someone who knows the subject matter intimately, and even then, it can be risky due to how differently each person experiences the world around them. For me, growing up as an Asian-American in a neighborhood where there weren’t many people who looked like me, I could wholeheartedly relate to a lot of what the story’s main characters – especially Willis – went through. Charles Yu was also spot-on where most of the cultural stereotypes were concerned – I found myself nodding my head in agreement throughout much of the story (and also laughing hysterically in the process).

This is one of those books that is very difficult to review because each person’s experience reading and reacting to it will be different depending on the place in society you’re from. I personally found this one clever, brilliant, and absolutely resonant on so many levels, but of course others who read this may not feel the same way. I would still recommend this book though…and who knows, I might even check out this author’s backlist at some point!

Received ARC from Pantheon Books (Random House) via Edelweiss.
...more

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Jan 28, 2021 Larry H rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Charles Yu's National Book Award-winning Interior Chinatown is funny, sharply satirical, thought-provoking, and uniquely told.

Willis Wu doesn’t feel like his life makes much of an impact: he tends to think of himself as “Generic Asian Man.” As an actor, he has played roles as diverse as Disgraced Son, Delivery Guy, Silent Henchman, and Guy Who Runs In and Gets Kicked in the Face. But he dreams of reaching what he sees the pinnacle of success for Asian actors—becoming Ku ...more

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Nov 25, 2020 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Recommended to Jenny (Reading Envy) by: https://themillions.com/2020/01/draft...

Shelves: read2020, national-book-award-nominees, audiobook, location-usa-california, tournament-of-books

I know this just won the National Book Award and I finally read it because that included it on the Tournament of Books long list, but I really did not enjoy reading this book. The entire structure and setup is satire? allegory? and the characters aren't real in the sense that characters are, they stand in to play a didactic role about how Asians, particularly the Chinese most of the time but also all Asians, are seen in America. As this was not news to me, I did not particularly enjoy the four h I know this just won the National Book Award and I finally read it because that included it on the Tournament of Books long list, but I really did not enjoy reading this book. The entire structure and setup is satire? allegory? and the characters aren't real in the sense that characters are, they stand in to play a didactic role about how Asians, particularly the Chinese most of the time but also all Asians, are seen in America. As this was not news to me, I did not particularly enjoy the four hour audiobook lecture about it.

I have liked other books by Charles Yu but experimental fiction will always carry the risk of people liking it or not. I mean, I feel pressured to give it three stars because I like him otherwise and it's winning awards and other people find it very clever but cleverness is not enough to sustain a novel for me and it will never be. I'm a substance over style person.

One thing I noticed in listening to the audiobook is how much the rhythm of his writing feels like George Saunders. I challenge anyone who cares to go back and listen to Tenth of December as read by the author and see if you can hear what I mean. The audiobook narrator of this does not have George's accent, so that's not it, it's something about how the words and sentences fall. (George is also someone who I prefer when he isn't experimenting, funny....)

I listened to this in the Random House Audio Volumes app, where they have given me access to most of their new audiobook titles. I chose to listen since I was interested in this book due to its placement in the ToB, but honestly would not have been drawn to reading it otherwise, and only selected it because it is rather short and could accompany me while working on Thanksgiving prep. Therefore I'm not sure I'd exactly call it a review copy except to say that if they hadn't provided it I would have purchased it just the same, and then ended up even more disappointed that I'd spent an Audible credit on a book that was short yet not enjoyed. It came out way way back in January 2020, when the world felt very different, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more at that point in time. But even so, that was around when there were all these great Asian-American forward movies and tv shows coming out (at long last) so is this historical fiction? ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Rod Brown rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2020-real-books

This meta, metaphorical, and satirical gimmick of a book bored me with its heavy-handed points about the Chinese American experience, valid as they are. A mash-up of a novel and a screenplay, it reads quickly enough, but still feels like the ultimate overlong Saturday Night Live sketch. I never connected with the surface humor or underlying drama, leaving me only with a "I see what he's doing there" feeling as it built toward its big and deliberately cheesy courtroom finale. ...more

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Dec 14, 2020 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-favorites, audiobook

[4.5] Playful and scathing, Interior Chinatown spun me around, inviting me to view Willis Wu's reality through a fresh lens. I loved this book and Yu's original and tender approach to his subject. The audiobook is perfectly read by Joel de la Fuente. ...more

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May 26, 2020 David rated it liked it

It's a bit of metafiction. Willis Wu dreams of becoming Kung Fu Guy, to transcend a life lived on the margins as disgraced son, striving immigrant, delivery guy or generic Asian man. He's living in the world of the cop drama Black and White, more specifically within the walls of the Golden Palace.

Willis is frustrated. He, along with his parents, live a state of perpetually having just arrived, never really arriving. All their striving, all of his hope, and still he can't escape being trapped by ...more

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Feb 21, 2021 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzer-hopefuls-2021, fiction, national-book-award, novels, american-21st-c, metafiction

I found this to be a very entertaining piece of metafiction about what it is like being Chinese in America. It is the only book I read from the 2020 Pulitzer hopefuls list that was written entirely in the second person, a technique that tries to draw us more into the life of Willis Wu. The backdrop of generic pronouns and the generic cop show provide funny, but witty reflections on anti-chinese racism.

I loved this quote: because by the time he gets to "West Virginia, mountain mama," you're going ...more

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Jul 25, 2021 Monica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aoc, awards-big, worldwide, pub_2020s, 5-star, betterthanexpected, satire, aoc-male, kindle_fiction, pub-2020

This one seems to have lukewarm reviews but to me it was absolutely brilliant!! rtc

5 Stars

Read on kindle

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Apr 07, 2020 Theresa Alan rated it really liked it

I found myself chuckling many times during this short novel about an Asian-American man playing small parts on a TV show. He has to affect an accent because that’s how the directors see him—not as someone who was born in America but as Generic Asian Man. Even though this book is amusing, it’s because Yu is poking fun at racism and stereotypes, so it has that funny/heart breaking dynamic.

The novel is written in an unusual style that uses the techniques of screenplay/teleplay writing to tell the s ...more

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Sep 29, 2020 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

National Book Award Fiction Longlist 2020. Brilliant. Highly inventive. Funny and playful one minute; deep and thought-provoking the next. Yu has written a teleplay about Chinatown which bridges the barrier between reality and the fictional TV series within the novel. The Golden Palace restaurant is the setting for the cop show “Black and White”. Willis Wu has a small part in the show—indeed, his role is limited by his being Asian American. He can be Background Oriental Male, Dead Asian Man, Gen ...more

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Dec 15, 2020 Barbara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: domestic-fiction, adult-fiction, award-nominated, literature

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award, “Interior Chinatown” is one of the most creative novels I’ve read. Author Charles Yu uses a screenplay format to create a story about the perplexities of being Asian, forcing the reader to see everyday racism towards Chinese Americans.

Using the screenplay format took a few pages for me to get into the rhythm of the story, but once I did, I was simultaneously entertained and enlightened. There were many “scenes” that I needed to reread to garner the full i ...more

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Feb 29, 2020 Kasa Cotugno rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-humor-satire, genre-auto-fiction, loc-usa-ca-s, awards-winners, culture-china, subj-immigration

Not only was this a fun book to read with its mashup of styles (most notably, shooting script plus narrative), it was also heartfelt and eyeopening in its depiction of a Generic Asian Man who is seeking his identity in a world that doesn't recognize him as an individual. Interior Chinatown presents his quest in a most remarkable and original way.

Ironically, all the characters are so well defined and depicted, I'd recognize any one of them if they walked in the door. Charles Yu's experiences on- ...more

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Jul 07, 2021 Brandice rated it really liked it

Willis Wu perceives himself as “Generic Asian Man” not just in his professional role as an extra in a TV series, where he aspires to rise to “Kung Fu Guy” but also seemingly in his personal life. Interior Chinatown explores both roles through a screenplay format.

The book is less than 300 pages, highlighting Hollywood stereotypes, particularly those pertaining to Asian actors. It was different, and I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy this dual format initially, especially as I had to confirm more than once ...more

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Dec 26, 2020 Angie Kim rated it it was amazing

Brilliant and devastating. I loved the whole thing--the creative structure and form, the humor, the brutal social commentary, the winks at the readers--but it wasn't until I got to W's monologue scene (in the trial) that I fully realized the complexity of the story. It feels like a literary version of Inception's multiple levels and the way scenes bend and fold upon themselves. Masterful. My brain hurts. ...more

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Oct 23, 2020 Dawn F rated it liked it

I got curious reading this after reading a friend’s review. I was leaning towards 4 stars at first but as it progressed the gimmicky style got tiring. There were some fun moments to begin with, but it lost its novelty along the way. There were moments of honest, emotional clarity where you could sense the inherited pain but it were soon drowned out by sitcom-like conversations. There was also a lot of interesting facts that I would have loved to know more of, like all the American immigration la ...more

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Jan 03, 2022 Nicole rated it liked it

Shelves: 2022, fiction

I listened to this book in the audiobook format, it was a bad decision. In my defence, I didn't know it's a screenplay. It's a very good book nonetheless. Review to come. ...more

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About Charles Yu

Charles Yu

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CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, which is a Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and shortlisted for Le Prix Médicis étranger. He has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebo ...more

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Quotes from Interior Chinatown

“There are a few years when you make almost all of your important memories. And then you spend the next few decades reliving them.” — 39 likes

“If you don't believe it, go down to your local karaoke bar on a busy night. Wait until the third hour, when the drunk frat boys and gastropub waitresses with headshots are all done with Backstreet Boys and Alicia Keys and locate the slightly older Asian businessman standing patiently in line for his turn, his face warmly rouged on Crown or Japanese lager, and when he steps up and starts slaying "Country Roads," try not to laugh, or wink knowingly or clap a little too hard, because by the time he gets to "West Virginia, mountain mama," you're going to be singing along, and by the time he's done, you might understand why a seventy-seven-year-old guy from a tiny island in the Taiwan Strait who's been in a foreign country for two-thirds of his life can nail a song, note perfect, about wanting to go home.” — 31 likes

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