By Kyndal Kohl

Interior Chinatown is a fictional book about Willis Wu, a small-time Hollywood actor stuck in stereotypical, menial roles as an Asian man, while desperately wanting something more than the little apartment he grew up in. Throughout the book, we see Wu struggle with his identity and his goals, two things that had become interwoven. This novel is about race, assimilation, immigration, and breaking away from what we’re deemed by society to be. Interior Chinatown was featured for the NWACC book club in November.

Willis Wu followed in his parents’ footsteps. Both were actors, getting jobs when they could, but still remained poor. Wu’s parents, now elderly, work at the Golden Palace restaurant, where a buddy-cop show named Black and White is filmed and, coincidentally, where Wu is playing his role as a Generic Asian Man. We follow Wu’s story as he climbs the ranks, falls in love, and even starts a family, but we also get to see Wu’s struggles in the acting world as an Asian American.

This book received the National Book Award for Fiction in 2020, the year it was published, and rightfully so. This was a delightful read, chock full of emotions and ambitions that feel tangible, but will always remain out of your grasp. The reader gets to experience disappointment and anger with Willis Wu.

If you enjoyed Interior Chinatown and would like to read more of Charles Yu’s work, consider picking up How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe; Sorry Please Thank You; or Third Class Superhero.