The protagonist of the novel, Willis Wu, dreams of being more than a bit player (Generic Asian Man Number 3)-of actually being a star. What was the most challenging thing about writing the book?įiguring out what “reality” was. Except even then it took me a while to figure out how to make it the best version of what I dreamed it could be, which took a lot of help from my editor, Tim O’Connell, and my agent, Julie Barer.Ģ. I don’t mean drafts-I mean that I had a substantially different version of this book that just wasn’t working, scrapped it, did that again, and then the third time was a charm. I basically wrote the book three times, and threw away the first two versions. How long did it take you to write Interior Chinatown?Įither a little less than two years or a bit more than five years, depending on how you count it. He lives in California.Ĭharles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown.ġ. His writing can also be found in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. He has written for several TV shows, including the HBO series Westworld, for which he was nominated for two Writer’s Guild of America awards. A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, Charles Yu is the author of three previous books: Third Class Superhero (Harcourt, 2006), How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Pantheon, 2010), and Sorry Please Thank You (Pantheon, 2012). What will happen if he veers off-script and climbs outside? Written in a hybrid screenplay-novel form, Interior Chinatown is both fantastical and devastatingly real, demonstrating the ways in which stereotypes and racism entrap language, behavior, and relationships at every turn. As Wu reaches for a place in the world, however, the story begins to shatter. But Wu dreams he might be something more-Kung Fu Guy, specifically-the rarefied pinnacle for the Asian man extra. An Asian man can never be a protagonist, for instance he’s most likely Background Oriental Male, Dead Asian Man, or Generic Asian Man Number Three. Everything in Wu’s world is framed around the show and is subject to its rules. Everywhere in Chinatown a procedural cop show called Black and White is in perpetual production. Every morning, Willis Wu descends from his tiny eighth floor apartment to the Golden Palace-a restaurant and, first and foremost, a film set. This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Charles Yu, whose latest book, Interior Chinatown, is out today from Pantheon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |