Their limited opportunities and outlooks are part of the social fabric of the period, though no dates are provided. Willis was born in the United States, but he and his Chinese family, like many other Asians, have always lived and worked in Chinatown. Many Chinese immigrants worked and participated in the making of films at a restaurant called the Golden Palace, which may have resembled this one. Quotations from the action of the film are indented and set off, and possible interpretations are emphasized by the unidentified author/director addressing the unknown reader – “you.” The roles of his mother and Older Brother are also explored in brief paragraphs of introduction, like the role descriptions of a script. Willis’s family has been in the film business at the Golden Palace for a generation his father was once a major actor in the films shot there, though his role has now been reduced to that of Old Asian Man. The “director” is realistic in evaluating Willis’s chances at improving his role from that of Background Oriental Male to his ideal role, that of Kung Fu Guy, the hero. Willis, an actor in a film being made in off-hours at the Golden Palace, is being addressed by an unknown “director,” who may be his own inner self. Visually, the “novel” appears to be a screenplay, its typeface resembling the pre-computer look of a typewritten script. As Willis, whose parents were immigrants, lives his life there and in the broader enclave of Chinatown, his creator, author Charles Yu explores Willis’s reality,quickly constructing level upon level of different “realities” and creating an experimental novel, often satiric, which includes the reader from the opening pages. Young main character Willis Wu spends the most important parts of his life at the Golden Palace, a Chinese restaurant/film studio in an unnamed time period in an unnamed English-speaking city. You are currently Background Oriental Male, but you’ve been practicing. “Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy. Note: This novel was the National Book Award WINNER for 2020.
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