A review by grvhppr
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

challenging funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What an eye opener this book was to being Asian in America. While it obviously doesn’t express every perspective, we garner the point of view of ‘Asian man’ who didn’t make it in STEM and tried one of the more available routes—acting. We witness yellow versus one of most common racial tensions in America—Black—by teaming up a Caucasian and African American cop duo to incorporate Willis’s ‘generic Asian man’ into the cop show Black and White. Through both a comical and shameful showing of how minorities are allowed to act, the author almost says that there’s a pecking order of minorities. That akin to the waiting period and role experience resets between ‘deaths’, Asians wait in line to be the next acceptable minority to receive public attention calling for equality. That through Turner we the reader saw how Blacks have the lead role alongside Whites at the moment. 

What a lesson it is for our coming generations to not accept equality and acceptance one at a time. No person should have to suffer and be someone they aren’t in society. 

I can’t help but think of Willis’s mom in the second act when she says to him
“Don’t aspire to be Kong Fu Man.”
What a shock it must have been for the young boy, but how right in the end. 
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