Interior Chinatown is a stunningly original exploration of Hollywood, the American Dream, the Asian and Asian-American experience in the United States, and, even more broadly, race relations in America. Yu's approach to these subjects is striking: much of the novel is written in the form of a screenplay, but it oscillates between realistic scenes on a TV show and almost dream-like fantasies in which subtext is brought to the fore. In a classroom setting, Interior Chinatown is an endless source of thought-provoking material with which students can grapple with their own identities, society's expectations, and the troubling history of how the United States has treated immigrants.
The...
