Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

INTERIOR CHINATOWN by Charles Yu is the 2020 National Book Award Winner for Fiction. This title is also the One Book Everyone Reads title for 2021 at the Wilmette Public Library. We have many students who are researching about xenophobia and Asian Americans and they will find much to explore in the programming which the public library has coordinated – a full list is here, including a chance to meet the author (via Zoom) on April 14 at 7:00pm. Called “a delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire” by The Washington Post, INTERIOR CHINATOWN is the story of a young Asian actor, Willis Wu, who dreams of becoming a star, the Kung Fu Guy. Instead he and his parents (old Asian woman and old Asian man) are forced to play stereotypical and generic roles. Yu shares Wu’s inner dialogue as well as the script of a cop show in which the actor is appearing, cleverly tying the two together. Amongst its many accolades, INTERIOR CHINATOWN received a starred review from Booklist.