Lan Samantha Chang

This is a quiet throwback of a novel. Although it was published in 2010 and the story begins in 1986, it has the feel of something taking place a half century earlier. Although the main characters are very different, this reminded me of [Stoner], with its tight focus on one man's adulthood spent in academia.

Roman attends a prestigious MFA writing program in the midwest, where he attends a seminar led by a prominent poet, Miranda Sturgis. He doesn't participate in class and only turns in show more work before the final meeting. He's critical of Sturgis and her air of detachment as well as her often cutting remarks about his fellow students' work. Nonetheless, he shows up at her house late one night demanding more and to his surprise, she invites him in.

Later, his joy in winning a writing prize that leads to his getting a tenure-track teaching job is marred by discovering that she was on the selection committee. He marries, has a child, settles down to teach, but also to write, to produce something that will out-shine his one published collection in a way so decisive as to lay to rest his own insecurities, as well as taking him back into the limelight.

He dug a trench into the process and stayed inside of it, waist-deep, sweating out the individual monologues, piecing them together. From inside the trench, there was no way to think of anything else: not marriage, not fatherhood. There was only the strength of voice, of words.

This novel is a look at the life of a man whose insecurities and arrogance shaped his life. It looks at his marriage to a fellow MFA graduate, his long friendship with another member of that program and at his own blindness in seeing how his own behavior affects those around him. It's beautifully written, with a melancholic edge. show less

Leo and Winnie Chao, immigrants from China, came to the small, midwestern city of Haven, Wisconsin and opened a Chinese restaurant. Of their three sons, Dagou, the oldest, came back home to run the restaurant only to have his father renege on his promise to give him the restaurant. Ming became a success elsewhere and stays away as much as he can and the youngest, James, dutifully fulfilled his parents' wishes and is in medical school. When they all converge the old faultlines fracture and show more when the Chao patriarch is found dead, the suspicion falls on one son.

Lan Samantha Chang bases this on The Brothers Karamazov and it's hugely fun to see where she has chosen to follow that novel and where she diverges. But there's no need to have read, or even be familiar with the Dostoevsky; this novel is wild and fun and full of its own heart. Chang has taken the framework to create her own memorable group of siblings. I've been a fan of Chang's work since I read her previous novel, All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost and this new book shows the same beautiful writing, while being utterly different. show less

Creative writers--or anyone who involved in the creative arts, for that matter--will find much to appreciate in this novel centered on three poets: Roman, outwardly successful, acutely aware that he has perhaps earned his honors too easily (and in fact he is not a very likable character); Bernard, his friend from the MFA in creative writing program, slogs away in poverty, working on a single epic poem; and Lucy, their fellow MFA student, who marries Roman and squashes her own talent in her show more role as wife and mother. I've made it sound depressing, and it is to some extent, but it's a sensitive exploration of art, friendship, and ambition. Recommended. show less

Lan Samantha Chang's The Family Chao offers readers an engaging cross-genre experience. It's a mystery; it's a generational story; it's an immigrant tale; it's both a comedy and a tragedy. Pretty much none of this book's characters are completely likeable (I'll make an exception for the mom, Winnie), but most of them are likeable enough that we enjoy watching the different directions in which their impulses direct them.

In a mostly white Wisconsin town Fine Chao Restaurant is the go-to place show more for Chinese food. First-generation immigrant father Leo Chao is a bully, determined to diminish all those around him. His sons Dagou, Ming, and James are all torn between the desire to support the family and its business and to remain as far away as possible from Leo. So, when Leo Chao dies on Christmas Eve, locked into a cold-storage room after an annual family party, there are three good suspects.

The Family Chao follows the arrest and trial of one of the sons, but keeps readers guessing about what role each of the three may have played in Leo's demise. A truly mysterious mystery (you won't guess whodunnit), this title gives readers a great many satisfactions along the way.

I received a free electronic review title of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own. show less