Number One Chinese Restaurant

Posted on 09 May 2018 by Lillian Li

An exuberant and wise multigenerational debut novel about the complicated lives and loves of people working in everyone s favorite Chinese restaurant.The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades When disaster strikes, this working family s controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast paced restaurant life has kept at bay Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father s homespun establishment for a fancier one Jimmy s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father s absence and a teenager s silence pushed them apart Nan and Ah Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their thirty year friendship into something else, even as Nan s son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble And when Pat and Annie, caught in a mix of youthful lust and boredom, find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children Generous in spirit, unaffected in its intelligence, multi voiced, poignant, and darkly funny, Number One Chinese Restaurant looks beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals to share an unforgettable story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive. Download Number One Chinese Restaurant – kino-fada.fr Although restaurants provide centerpieces of the novel, there are other invitations for potential life changing confrontations framed by the food, and the way in which that food is prepared and offered gives scenes immediacy as well as normalization of what could be explosive situations This is true of almost every culture Discordant exchanges are either enhanced or softened by the sharing of a meal, and Lillian Li slyly incorporates such practices throughout this deceptively light toned novel Although restaurants provide centerpieces of the novel, there are other invitations for potential life changing confrontations framed by the food, and the way in which that food is prepared and offered gives scenes immediacy as well as normalization of what could be explosive situations This is true of almost every culture Discordant exchanges are either enhanced or softened by the sharing of a meal, and Lillian Li slyly incorporates such practices throughout this deceptively light toned novel Jimmy and Johnny Han are second generation owners of The Beijing Duck House, which was the realization of their father s dream upon emigrating to Maryland The two other main characters are their employees, Jack and Nan, who have known each other deeply for 30 year...This novel is a feast to me in many respects First, it is full of psychological dramas in multiple main characters, not only about the conflicts in their minds as they act, but also including sketches of the psychological development in their lives These owners and workers of the Chinese restaurant confess and tell their li...interesting analysis of the many roles of food and sharing meals togetherpushes the concept of what constitutes a family definitely not your stereotypical or boring love you no matter what kind of family you see so often in ame...if you ve read tiger mom , everything i never told you , and crazy rich asians , THIS is the next book you HAVE to readLove how you see asian immigrants vs their children born in america both contained in the umbrella term asian american despite being so differentI used to work at a Chinese restaurant many years ago This book brought back so many of my memories It made all those people I used to work with alive again The love, expectations, frustrations, conflicts and struggles between the two generations first generation of immigrant Chinese parents and sec...3.5 Stars Review to follow.Delightful book Characters that make you want to read the next page So much going on, but exactly how you d like to spend an afternoon reading Thank you to Henry, Holt and Company, NetGalley and author for the chance to read this book While I got the book for free, it had no bea...beautiful moments of poetry so well inserted into each chapter I found myself re reading entire paragraphs over and over just to make sure I fully appreciated the full effect of Lillian Li s words no idea how she manages to be so subtle yet so powerful, but ...Wow, this book really makes youfeelThe characters are complex and all have a myriad of personalities The language is so creative and expressive The pain the characters feel, whether physical or emotional, isn t just an abstract concept in this book Through Li s painstakingly honest descriptions, my heart genuinely felt pain and anger for each character The concepts of love and family are also thoroughly explored in this novel through the relationships the characters have In this book, Wow, this book really makes youf...I received this book from NetGalley and was excited to dive into a fiction that dealt with themes surrounding the Chinese restaurant life I personally grew up as a product of this very niche subculture I think that Li does some things well here She illuminates the generational barrier that disallows a conventionally intimate relationship between 1st gen parents, who toil endlessly to pave the way for their progeny, and the 2nd gen children who yearns for the existence of some kind of a relati I received this book from NetGalley and was excited to dive into a fiction that dealt with themes surrounding the Chinese restaurant life...

English
09 May 2018

Lillian Li