Episode 579: 1Q1A Interior Chinatown Charles Yu
b'Willis Wu doesn\\u2019t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he\\u2019s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet 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\\u2019s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy\\u2014the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?
After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he\\u2019s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration\\u2014Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu\\u2019s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.'