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Interior Chinatown

A Novel (National Book Award Winner)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Interior Chinatown follows Willis Wu, who views himself not as the lead but as Generic Asian Man—an often overlooked character trapped by Hollywood stereotypes. Living in a Chinatown single-room occupancy, Willis dreams of rising to the coveted role of Kung Fu Guy on a perpetually producing cop show. His journey propels him beyond the screen and his familiar surroundings into a wider world filled with hidden histories and familial legacies. This inventive and deeply personal novel probes race, pop culture, immigration, and the struggle to break free from imposed roles.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel is well suited for readers interested in sharp social commentary, contemporary fiction, and explorations of identity and race, particularly in the context of Asian American experiences and Hollywood representation.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • “A shattering and darkly comic send-up of racial stereotyping in Hollywood” (Vanity Fair) and 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 the protagonist in his own life: he’s 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. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the 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 he’s 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 immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780307948472

Publisher: Random House USA Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 November 2020

Country: United States

Imprint: Vintage Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 289g

Pages: 288

About the Author

CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New YorkerThe New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publicationsTogether with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents.

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