Number One Chinese Restaurant
A Novel
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کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
April 2, 2018
With echoes of Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster, Li’s insightful debut takes readers behind the scenes of a Chinese restaurant, the Beijing Duck House, in Rockville, Md. Jimmy Han, son of the restaurant’s deceased original owner, runs the business but is trying to sell it to transition to a more upscale venue, the Beijing Glory, an Asian fusion restaurant on the Georgetown waterfront. Jimmy and his older brother, Johnny, have had a running argument about the direction of the Duck House—Johnny wants the restaurant to remain traditional—since the death of their father. Their manager, Nan, and Ah-Jack, a waiter, have been friends for 30 years but lately have become romantically involved. Meanwhile, Nan’s troubled 17-year-old son, Pat, a dishwasher, and Johnny’s disaffected daughter, Annie, a hostess, have been having not-so-secret sex in the storage closet. And hovering over all of them is Uncle Pang, a mysterious, nine-fingered godfather who might hold the key to their futures. Despite the novel’s leisurely plotting, Li vividly depicts the lives of her characters and gives the narrative a few satisfying turns, resulting in a memorable debut.
Narrator Nancy Wu's careful pacing allows listeners to absorb the multiple layers of this story about how the Han family and the staff at their successful Chinese restaurant try to balance work and their personal lives, familial duty, and dreams. On one level, the novel exposes the sometimes insurmountable gap between immigrant and American-born generations, especially in areas like work ethic and visions of the future. Another layer of the story examines the characters' personal issues, including divorce, addiction, aging, and parenting. By varying her cadence and volume, Wu differentiates inner turmoil from public drama. Furthermore, her respectful Chinese-American accent--subtle for the younger characters and stronger for the older ones--adds depth to the listening experience. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
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