![]() ![]() ![]() One of the book’s biggest selling points for me was its rich cast of colourful characters, all of whom grow and evolve throughout the story. Nan’s seventeen year old son, Pat, has recently been expelled from school so now works a lowly job at the restaurant, while Ah-Jack’s wife is in the late stages of cancer with mounting medical bills. A long-running restaurant beloved by many, two of its key employees, Nan and Ah-Jack, continue to work despite their advancing years as they struggle to support their dependents. Managed by brothers Kimmy and Johnny Han, who inherited it from their late father Bobby. Published to wide critical acclaim from the likes of Book Riot, Publisher’s Weekly and The Financial Times, Number One Chinese Restaurant is a memorable debut from this American author, set within the Chinese immigrant community of Maryland and centred around popular eatery, The Duck House restaurant. And so, while the first of the books I read from the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction long-list was a writer I already knew the second was one I’d not yet come across. This book is heartful, tender, necessary and wise.One of the joys of reading literary prize lists – other than the excuse to carve out even more time that usual for books – is the reading of authors you might otherwise not have come across. She skillfully maintains the balance of how families and loved ones can harm you more than anyone, and also can be there for you when no one else is. She ensures that her readers see the wit and humor of these characters while also acknowledging the restlessness, isolation and ache - both physical and emotional - that can emerge out of the immigrant experience, out of a restaurant that’s been established long enough to be thought of as a “staple” of a neighborhood. Li expertly crafts a deeply felt and beautifully evoked multigenerational narrative. I fall somewhere in the middle, coming from an Asian immigrant family that has never run or staffed this type of restaurant. For others, it may read as something close to coming home. They have both been married to other partners for decades, but have been each other’s closest companion - quietly, tenderly and chastely - for just as long.įor some readers, NUMBER ONE CHINESE RESTAURANT will bring to light an environment they’ve been in many times. Their young and ruthless coupling contrasts to the longstanding relationship between Nan and Ah-Jack. ![]() Annie and Pat, thrown together, become caught up in each other, and their restless attraction threatens to blossom into something chaotic that they might not be able to contain. Johnny tries to keep his younger brother’s ambitions in check while also refusing to recognize that his daughter is growing up, and who she’s becoming. When Jimmy and Johnny’s father passed away, Jimmy sought to finally free himself from their father’s restaurant and go on to open his own, without any real regard for how to recreate something well-established. ![]() She skillfully maintains the balance of how families and loved ones can harm you more than anyone, and also can be there for you when no one else is." "Li expertly crafts a deeply felt and beautifully evoked multigenerational narrative. Here, Lillian Li gives voice to a collection of individuals: the owner Jimmy and his brother, Johnny, the manager Nan, the head waitress, and her dear friend, Ah-Jack, a longtime waiter her son Pat, the 17-year-old dishwasher who was expelled from high school and the manager’s daughter, Annie, the 19-year-old hostess. The only readers who, most likely, have not been to the Beijing Duck House are the ones who have lived it. Because it is an experience in and of itself, a workplace and an environment, a place of immigrants and family and skills and aches and love. You’ve watched it close, renovate and reopen, all without giving it more than a cursory thought - or at least not a thought decentralized from your own experience and your own cravings for Americanized Chinese food. You’ve gone with your family for a special occasion, you’ve gone with a few friends when you have a craving, you’ve driven past it on the highway. You have been to the Beijing Duck House before. ![]()
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