Library's review
I've been avoiding writing this review because I am still not sure what I think of the book. On the one hand, I can appreciate the writing and I found some of the subject matter to be quite interesting, especially the depiction of the variety of experiences that Chinese immigrants to America have.
The Chao family have lived in a small Wisconsin town for 35 years, since the father and mother emigrated separately from China as young adults. They own a successful Chinese restaurant in the town, and have raised three sons. As the book opens, the parents have separated and the sons are grappling with their own places in the family and the world, hindered by their overbearing father's harsh treatment. (These are the bits that I absolutely loathe.) Everything builds to a climactic Christmas Eve dinner at the restaurant, where an unexpected tragedy alters the trajectory of all of their lives.
The second part of the book is set inside and outside of the courtroom where one of the family members is on trial. That mitigates but doesn't entirely erase the family's inability to connect with each other, and I found myself not really caring at all about the outcome. The final part deals with the aftermath of the verdict with some half-hearted attempts to wrap up each character's story. In the end for me, my antipathy is less about some characters being unlikable and more that I generally didn't find any of the characters compelling enough to make me care about what would happen to them.
I probably should not have read this book, knowing that it was not going to feature a narrative that I find appealing, so I won't try to pass judgment on whether anyone should or shouldn't read it. I did find the discussions of the immigrant experience to be really interesting, especially as Chang presents different viewpoints — the original immigrant generation who had to make a life for themselves in a new country far from home; their ABC (American-Born Chinese) children, whose experiences range from trying to maintain the old ways to complete assimilation to having a foot in both worlds and feeling at home in neither; to the young woman who was adopted from China by a white couple as a baby and grows up to feel completely disconnected from her native culture and desperate to try to re-join it in some way.
The alumni book club that chose this as its January selection is reading much more slowly and won't even finish the reading schedule until the end of the month. Perhaps when the discussion heats up in that venue I'll get some new insights to the book that will make me appreciate it more. Until then, it's a general 'meh' from me.
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On the other hand, the general plot line of dysfunctional and contentious family dynamics is one that I normally avoid like the plague, and nothing about this changed my mind in that regard.The Chao family have lived in a small Wisconsin town for 35 years, since the father and mother emigrated separately from China as young adults. They own a successful Chinese restaurant in the town, and have raised three sons. As the book opens, the parents have separated and the sons are grappling with their own places in the family and the world, hindered by their overbearing father's harsh treatment. (These are the bits that I absolutely loathe.) Everything builds to a climactic Christmas Eve dinner at the restaurant, where an unexpected tragedy alters the trajectory of all of their lives.
The second part of the book is set inside and outside of the courtroom where one of the family members is on trial. That mitigates but doesn't entirely erase the family's inability to connect with each other, and I found myself not really caring at all about the outcome. The final part deals with the aftermath of the verdict with some half-hearted attempts to wrap up each character's story. In the end for me, my antipathy is less about some characters being unlikable and more that I generally didn't find any of the characters compelling enough to make me care about what would happen to them.
I probably should not have read this book, knowing that it was not going to feature a narrative that I find appealing, so I won't try to pass judgment on whether anyone should or shouldn't read it. I did find the discussions of the immigrant experience to be really interesting, especially as Chang presents different viewpoints — the original immigrant generation who had to make a life for themselves in a new country far from home; their ABC (American-Born Chinese) children, whose experiences range from trying to maintain the old ways to complete assimilation to having a foot in both worlds and feeling at home in neither; to the young woman who was adopted from China by a white couple as a baby and grows up to feel completely disconnected from her native culture and desperate to try to re-join it in some way.
The alumni book club that chose this as its January selection is reading much more slowly and won't even finish the reading schedule until the end of the month. Perhaps when the discussion heats up in that venue I'll get some new insights to the book that will make me appreciate it more. Until then, it's a general 'meh' from me.
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Description
The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant's delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family's secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last. Before long, brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead--presumed murdered--and his sons find they've drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant's reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James. As the spotlight on the brothers tightens--and the family dog meets an unexpected fate--Dagou, Ming, and James must reckon with the legacy of their father's outsized appetites and their own future survival. Brimming with heartbreak, comedy, and suspense, The Family Chao offers a kaleidoscopic, highly entertaining portrait of a Chinese American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of a seemingly pleasant small town.… (more)
Media reviews
The setting and characters offer plenty of space in which Chang can explore the multiple pressures brought to bear on the children of Asian immigrants growing up in a small Midwestern town --- from their family’s expectations regarding filial piety to local prejudices to a feeling of estrangement
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from one’s culture of origin. It is also suffused with humor, much of it ironic, and delicious descriptions of Chinese food. Show Less
Although not a strict retelling of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky by any means, there are notable and clearly intentional parallels such as the three brothers, of course, the contentious relationship between them and their domineering father, and also a meeting at a holy place to try
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to deal with a monetary dispute....Leo Chao's desires have steered him in ways that hurt his family; he's a philanderer, tells crude jokes loudly in polite company, and has a way of belittling his sons that amuses him — if no one else — greatly.... Even when Leo is at his most misogynist and cruel, his comfort in his own skin is palpable on the page. When contrasted with his sons and their varied insecurities, it's hard to be entirely immune to the patriarch's charisma.... They alternately resent the need to consider their "model minority" status, try to ignore it entirely, or believe that the need to consider it is paranoid. All are fair reactions to a culture of racism that they are not responsible for, and the book treats each of them — foibles, complexities, charms, wishes, regrets and all — with empathy and respect. The Family Chao is a riveting character-driven novel that delves beautifully into human psychology; Dostoevsky himself would surely approve. Show Less
...the story culminates in a trial that becomes a stage for broader debates over obligation, morality, and family. But Chang is excellent at exploring this at a more intimate level as well. A later plot twist deepens the tension and concludes a story that smartly offers only gray areas in response
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to society’s demands for simplicity and assurance. A disruptive, sardonic take on the assimilation story. Show Less
All is not well in the family. The sons reunite in Haven for the annual Christmas party to find that Winnie has tired of her tyrannical husband and has left him to seek spiritual enlightenment. The locals, meanwhile, have turned on Leo, as well: some in response to his cutthroat business dealings,
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others out of racism. After the party, Leo turns up dead, the authorities suspect foul play, and Dagou is charged with murder. As in Dostoyevsky’s novel, there is a trial, and important Chao family secrets will come to light, but Chang retells the story in a manner all her own, adding incisive wit while retaining the pathos. In this timely, trenchant, and thoroughly entertaining book, an immigrant family’s dreams are paid for in blood. Show Less
Glimmers of Chang’s irrefutable pedigrees occasionally sparkle through multigenerational wrongs, disastrous relationships, and complicated expositions. Alas, tenacity is necessary to endure didactic screeds about race, identity, love, and loyalty for a perhaps-too-obvious whodunit reveal.
Awards
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Fiction — 2023)
Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize (Longlist — 2023)
Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Achievement Award (Fiction — 2023)
Heartland Booksellers Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2022)
NPR: Books We Love (2022)
RUSA CODES Listen List (Listen-Alike — Listen-Alike to "Happiness Falls" — 2023)
Language
Original publication date
2022-02-01