The Big Read Book Club: "Interior Chinatown" (In-Person Session)

Join us for our new Big Read Book Club! Each month, we'll read one of the 12 novels & memoirs the National Endowment for the Arts features as its annual "Big Read" selections. We will meet at 10 am every fourth Saturday to discuss the book; patrons have the option of attending virtually or in person. Our May selection will be Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. Willis Wu, the novel's main character, doesn't perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man. 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 highest aspiration he can imagine for a Chinatown denizen. 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, and what that means for him, in today's America.

Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet. Coffee and refreshments will be served at the discussion! Copies of Interior Chinatown will be available at the library's Circulation Desk. Please sign up below to participate in this month's discussion!