Rental House by Weike Wang

RENTAL HOUSE by Weike Wang (Chemistry and Joan is Okay) is another introspective and reflective look at the experiences of a young woman, Keru who generally felt, “these were her duties. To assimilate, work nonstop, make money, and provide.” She and her husband, Nate who is an academic, offer separate times at their Cape Cod rental house to their parents and that proves an instructive contrast between their families and even their worldviews; for example: “Expats left wealthy nations to humble themselves at the altar of the world, immigrants escaped poorer nations to be the work force of the rich. For Nate, the word immigrant sat closer to migrant or refugee, and though an expat did move overseas for work opportunities, much like immigrants, the term also seemed to imply vacation and adventure…” The couple clearly struggles to meet the expectations of their own parents and to form connections with their in-laws in the first part of the book. In the second, they are more established in their own careers and patterns, but something is still lacking as evidenced by the uncomfortable relationship with neighbors at a second vacation home in the Catskills. “They were co-dependent, she and Nate. Without her, he lost grounding, but without him, she could be relentless and too focused.” Despite the affection they show for their dog, Mantou, neither is prepared to have children, another aspect that feeds feelings of inadequacy.  Like Wang’s other novels, book groups would have much to discuss, including gender roles, white privilege, misogyny, and xenophobia. RENTAL HOUSE received starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly as well as praise from book reviewers at The New York Times (perceptively noting, “Even as you flee a family, you carry it along with you, in memories of how and who you learned to be in the past.”) and The Washington Post (“As in any good novel, the answers are few, but the questions multiply.”).