In this novel, which received the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, Yu takes on the realities of anti-Asian discrimination in Hollywood. To make the point specific, he develops the narrative in the form of a screenplay about an actor named Willis Wu, a stereotyped bit player in a television police drama called Black and White. Yu, who spent some time writing for the series Westworld, knows the territory on a variety of levels, and he brings the full weight of his experience to bear. The result is a book that is surprising both in how it is written and in what it has to tell us about the entrenched nature of racial and cultural tropes.

Vintage INTERIOR CHINATOWN, BY CHARLES YU

<i>INTERIOR CHINATOWN</i>, BY CHARLES YU
$15 at Bookshop
Credit: Vintage

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