interior Chinatown served with Chinese Chicken salad and Egg Drop soup

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu served with Chinese Chicken salad and Egg Drop soup . 

This is an interesting read.  It didn't hit the mark for me but I'm glad I read it.  This is my book group selection for February and after our discussion, I feel a little more prepared to write a review. 

This is the story of Willis Wu, Generic Asian Man in Hollywood.  He is hardworking and hopes to move from Generic Asian Man to Kung Fu Guy.  Part of the story is written as a script and then part as his inner monologue.   He really brings up the question of how we have stereotypes for Asian people in movies and for some reason we still struggle to see them as "American" .   What does an American look like?  He is in a police procedural call Black & White which is where he meets "Ethnically ambiguous" girl.    This book is clever and really puts the view we have on race in the center of the conversation and does it in a creative way.  

I listened to this book on audio which might be why I struggled.  The narrator was great but in audio, you can't see that it is a script or when it goes off script but i just knew it was weird.  It was distracting for me from the story.  I wish I had actually read it.   I did like the glimpses into his family life and the living environment.  But half the time i wasn't sure if what i was hearing was real life or if it was the script.  Our book group discussion was good because there was a lot to cover here.  Everything from the

writing style, to our views of how hollywood portrays race to our thoughts on the individual characters.  I'm giving this 3 stars but it is probably closer to 3.5 because of the cleverness of the author. ⭐⭐⭐

I was all set to make Chinese Chicken salad because i'm been craving it and then i looked it up and...  it's not the least bit Chinese!  I was going to scratch it and come up with some more authentic but after talking to my bookgroup, this felt right.  In some ways this is a great example of something the average American probably thinks is Chinese and it is so off the mark.  It seems to fit that sterotype we have in our head.   I'm also made Eggdrop Soup  which does seem to be authentic http://www.windchimeschinese.com/windchimes-blog/2019/6/25/history-of-food-egg-drop-soup

The Chinese Chicken Salad is a combination of recipes from a dear friend and past attempts.  It turned out okay but I forgot the wonton chips which is really what makes it the best 

The Egg Drop soup is here https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/egg-drop-soup/comment-page-7/#comments