Very interesting book. Its told entirely like a script of a TV show (he uses a typewriter font type and the page numbers are all on the upper right of each page, like it was a type-written script - annoying in book form when looking for the page number on the left hand side of the book ;) . Willis lives in tenement apartment building and works in a Chinese Restaurant, but he's part of an endless production of a police procedural drama called Black and White. He and his friends and family are part of the actors and extras for this show. Young Asian Man, or Egg Roll Chef, Silent Henchman; all the tropes that we've grown up with. But he's never been a main character, his dream is to be Kung Fu Guy. I was never quite sure if the show was real, or it was an alternate universe, or just a narrative device. Ultimately its Yu's examination of the history of Asian culture in American and how its depicted in popular media. I enjoyed it quite a bit, recommend. ( )

The format of this novel as a metafictional sometimes hallucinatory screenplay is one I'm sort of surprised has met with as much favor as it has. It's not the most accessible, but it is super interesting and will give you a perspective you probably haven't spent much time considering before (at least I hadn't). The format of the novel as screenplay at first led me into confusion, wondering what was "real" and what was "fiction" inside this fictional world. Is his dad really a kung-fu expert as he's presented, or is that part of the Kung Fu Guy metaphor for making it vs. not making it as an Asian-American? And then realizing that the screenplay format reinforces the idea of the main character playing a role in his normal everyday life as an Asian American was an a-ha moment. As he says in a section in which the Asian-American experience is essentially placed on trial:

But at the same time, I'm guilty, too. Guilty of playing this role. Letting it define me. Internalizing the role so completely that I've lost track of where reality starts and the performance begins.

Which gets to how this novel is not just about how America treats and has historically treated Asian-Americans, it's about how Asian-Americans navigate and behave in this reality. How people perform the role expected of them, to what degree they are forced into doing it ("No one will hire you because you don't have an accent. It's weird.") and to what degree they choose it themselves. The main character's marriage falls apart evidently because he can't let go of that role that's expected of him as an Asian-American, and later watching his daughter he reflects on the choice he's made and how he hopes she'll be different:

Watching her is like finding old letters, of things you knew thirty years ago and haven't thought of since. How to feel, how to be yourself. Not how to perform or act. How to be.

It's a powerful and inventive novel, well worth its win of the National Book Award. ( )

Liked but did not love this one.

Some really sad and beautiful passages, a little confusing at times, often funny.

I wish I had just settled in and read it at once instead of in spurts because I think I lost a little reading it the way I did. ( )

good. soooooooo good! i had no idea what to expect when i started reading this book. it was funny, i had to ask myself why i thought it was funny though. it was also dark. and sad. but it was also transformative and so original! “In the world of Black and White, everyone starts out as Generic Asian Man. Everyone who looks like you, anyway. Unless you’re a woman, in which case you start out as Pretty Asian Woman". “You all work at Golden Palace, formally Jade Palace, formally Palace of Good Fortune. There’s an aquarium in the front and cloudy tanks of rock crabs and two-pound lobsters crawling over each other in the back. Laminated menus offer the lunch special, which comes with a bowl of fluffy white rice and choice of soup, egg drop or hot and sour”. "You wear the uniform: white shirt, black pants. Black slipperlike shoes that have no traction whatsoever. Your haircut is not good, to say the least”. the writing in this book is sharper than any knife i have in my house and the stylist format and metaphors are powerful. the jokes were funny, but it’s the heartfelt warmth and tenderness for humanity that moved me most. there's plenty of enjoyable laughs balanced with insightful seriousness which was well balanced. Charles Yu opened up a can of worms, while letting the cat out of the bag at the same time. “You’re here, supposedly, in a new land full of opportunity, but somehow have gotten trapped in a pretend version of the old country”! ( )

This book is essentially written as a script where the characters are mainly Asian Americans acting as bit players in a cop show, the main protagonist dreaming of being Kung Fu Guy, but usually playing Generic Asian Man or Background Oriental. As the book proceeds this situation increasingly leaks into his real life and family. Its a clever way to look at topics of racism, stereotypes and expectations. ( )