Interior Chinatown: A Novel (National Book Award Winner) (Vintage Contemporaries)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood (Vanity Fair) and adeeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu doesnt perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: hes merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. Hes a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guythe most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than hes ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigrationInterior Chinatown is Charles Yus most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.