![]() ![]() Violence against Asian Americans is on the rise, probably exacerbated with the coronavirus originating from China. A lot of the writing of this book took place during the four years of the Trump administration, and I think that was always operating in my head as I was writing this book. Black Lives Matter and a lot of the anti-immigrant sentiment that sort of erupted last year - those didn’t happen in a vacuum. But I think there’s a more general timeliness. Not having had a crystal ball, I didn’t realize how timely it would become in 2020 specifically. –Roberta Humphrey-Stephens of Bayside, Wisconsin How difficult was it to be so brave and open in creating such an immensely timely view of social injustice? But for whatever reason, it always takes that period of dancing around it first before I’m willing to dive into it. It’s funny - I spent a lot of time writing around things and then all of a sudden you start writing into sensitive areas and you think, ‘Why wasn’t I doing this the whole time?’ Just get to the heart of the matter. I think there were parts of my experience as both a son and as a dad that I was kind of unlocking in the course of the story. It’s also a rare but welcome event when something I write actually makes me feel something, because then I think, ‘Oh, I’m onto something here.’ And that happened a few times in the book, particularly in the stories of Willis with either his parents or with Phoebe later on in the book. I like when a line I write makes me laugh or even smile, which doesn’t happen that often. Was it sometimes painful to write parts of this book? And my editor, Tim O’Connell at Pantheon, actually had a lot of input, but only after I had already kind of fleshed out the concept. So I wrote a good chunk of it, and then I did share it with my editor. I felt like in order to execute this concept, I would have to really do it before showing it to anyone. How much, or what kind of, advice did you accept from editors in deciding what to include or exclude from your story? You’re definitely walking a line between the stereotype of the perpetual foreigner and identity. These responses have been edited and condensed for clarity. You’ll find a selection of his answers below and can watch senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown’s interview with him here. Written as a teleplay, the book offers a darkly humorous commentary on racism and representation in the entertainment industry. Charles Yu, author of our February pick for the NewsHour-New York Times book club, recently answered questions submitted by readers on Facebook about his satirical novel, “Interior Chinatown”. ![]()
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