About my Asian (American) literature review

Welcome to the literary review featuring the most memorable books I've read by Asian authors.

I’ve read a lot of books by Asian and diasporic Asian authors in the past, like, 3 years? I went through my Storygraph and selected the most iconic ones. FYI many of the books I read are by folks with roots in South Korea, Japan, and China. Text me if you want more recs, or scroll to the bottom for random reflections. Enjoy!

GOATs

The greatest of all time. Top tier recommendations from yours truly.

Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park - A listless man working for a megacorporation. Excerpts from a mysterious manuscript. A Korean war veteran-cum-novelist trying to help his daughter win a videogame. Three universes blend into one and explore the untaught history of Korea and Korean America. A weird, splendid book that met all of my sensibilities. I met Ed Park at a book signing and I was literally shaking.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - “History has failed us, but no matter.” It hits soooo hard. An epic generational saga that explores the dynamics of a Korean family during Japanese occupation. Engrossing, devastating, well-researched, and wonderfully done—Min Jin Lee is the queen of Korean American fiction.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen - A visceral, raunchy, unflinching account of the Vietnam War (or the American War?) told from the perspective of a half-Vietnamese half-French spy. Nguyen himself is an academic, and you can sense his critical tone in his writing, especially as it relates to the Western perspective of the violence in Vietnam and on its people.

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki - A Japanese American writer finds a diary washed up on the beach written by a Japanese schoolgirl, and a dialogue ensues. I remember the book being engrossing, quirky, and insightful. It also features a zany Buddhist nun, and Ozeki herself is an ordained Buddhist priest!

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong - Beautiful, lyrical writing from a Vietnamese American poet, and framed as a man writing letters to his mother who cannot read English. Vuong is so good at grasping your heart and twisting it.

BRB crying

I am feeling things, for better or for worse.

Crying in Hmart by Michelle Zauner - C’mon bro. A book on connecting to your family and heritage via food and taking care of your ailing mother? Michelle Zauner, otherwise known to indieheads as Japanese Breakfast, is a good freaking writer. I gifted out this book twice.

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee - Chee has this way of writing where the sentences either flow or tumble into each other, making you eager to flip onwards or flip back to weird syntax. Either way, Chee demands your attention. This book about young choir boys made me think, but also grimace and look away. Many trigger warnings. I’d recommend How to Write an Autobiographical Novel for a lighter tone.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - Ishiguro’s writing is usually slow paced, which can feel like a drag, but it really works in this book. In this universe, robots are up for purchase as live-in companions or maids. The story examines the relationship between humans and their robots from the perspective of a robot who only wishes to satisfy its human. Never Let Me Go is also an excellent read, and movie!

Depressed Asian woman in academia or corporate who is dating a mid white guy

Don’t get me started. But do, because tell me why so many Asian female authors are writing about these sisters and their white misters??? Huh??? This trend I could not ignore.

Chemistry by Weike Wang - I can’t remember what happened in this book, other than the main character pursuing a PhD in chemistry, hence the title. The white boyfriend in this story is named Eric.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou - This whole book is satire and is sort of a wacky and wild adventure about PhD student, Ingrid. She’s finding meaning in her studies and her life, while dating her ditzy white boyfriend (who is a Japanese translator), going on shenans with her Awkafina-side-character-like best friend, and going at it with her super hot campus rival. The white guy in this story is named Stephen.

Happy for You by Claire Stanford - Girl is in PhD philosophy program and takes a break to work in tech. At the company, she is tasked with studying happiness, while dealing with the unhappiness in her life. A major life event occurs, and suddenly, everything is okay??? Sigh. The white boyfriend in this story is named Jamie.

Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang - In fairness, this book hit when I was remotely interning for a tech company and feeling lonely and depressed during peak COVID. The book is really slow and just as meandering as the title suggests. The white guy in this story is named J.

Severance by Ling Ma - Candace finds herself in a seemingly plausible apocalypse, and examines her relationship to work and the past. On first read, I thought Candace’s boyfriend was quirky and charming. On second read, I found him weird. The white guy in this story is named Jonathan.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - This book is controversial, but I liked it! It’s a critique on the publishing world, especially as it relates to the representation of writers of color. After Athena Liu’s sudden passing, her frenemy, June, steals her manuscripts and publishes using a vaguely Asian-coded alias. There is a white guy in this story named Geoff, but you could argue that June is the white guy in this story.

Absurd translated literature

Some of the weirdest shiz ever.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - Glimpse into the mind of a young girl who believes she is an alien. The book turns disturbing real quick. Murata’s books usually feature an oddball outcast and the troubles they get into.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel - From my Storygraph: “well that was bizarre. but also, not really. if you’ve read murakami before, many of the themes and weird comments on ears and breasts should be familiar to you. i am astounded that i just spent all of this time reading a 1000 page book, but i did enjoy parts of it. some passages were for sure repetitive, as murakami details the specific vinyls, breakfasts, and self care routines the characters take. could 90% of those parts be cut out without taking away from the plot? for sure. but it is a murakami book without repeated, irrelevant details? no. at this point, i find it endearing.”

The Vegetarian by Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith - A woman goes vegetarian, but also more. A visceral book that might turn you off, but also an interesting analysis on innocence, shame, womanhood, and cultural norms in Korea. In fairness, it took me a second reread to really get into the book because it is so graphic.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and translated by Ken Liu - Backdropped by the Cultural Revolution, a woman makes a decision that changes humanity’s fate forever. Chaotic eras, dehydration, videogames, the collapse of science, and aliens! Go read this immediately because it will make you rethink society.

Epic translated literature

These stories feel like passion projects with a singular focus on a craft, location, or experience.

Run With the Wind by Shion Miura and translated by Yui Kajita - A panoramic view on ten college boys in a rundown boarding house, all training to compete in a traditional Japanese marathon and relay race up and down historic Mount Hakone. Literal blood, sweat, and tears go into this feat, and I became endeared to the cast of characters.

Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda and translated by Philip Gabriel - We follow four different piano players at an elite music competition and learn about their different backstories. Listen to the piano pieces they play as you read—if you’ve ever played a musical instrument (or have interest in music), this book will hit.

The Wedding Party by Liu Xinwu and translated by Jeremy Tiang - Spanning the course of one day, we peak into the lives of a Beijing siheyuan (courtyard house). Someone is getting married, and the whole neighborhood is rushing and gathering to celebrate. The snarky omniscient narrator lets us dive into each character’s head, which adds so much color to the story. I loved it!

I-Novel by Minae Mizumura and translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter - An i-novel is a type of literary genre in Japan that is self-confessional and fictionalized. In this work of autofiction, Mizumura talks to her sister on the phone and reminisces on their family’s immigration from Japan to the US, coming of age troubles, the meaning of art, etc. This book was published in the Japanese in 1995, but the themes still hit in the modern day.

Short story madness

They say that writing a short story is harder than writing a novel.

Your Utopia: Stories by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur - This is one of the best author-translator duos out there. Anton gets Bora, and he captures her cynical, spinning essence in these stories reflecting on dystopias, automation, and the future. If you’re into horrorcore, Cursed Bunny by the same duo is also worth a read.

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So - I remember liking this book for giving me a peak into the lives of Cambodian-Americans living in California. The children of the Cambodian genocide grow up in the US and struggle to adjust while reckoning with grief and trauma. This book came out posthumously. RIP So.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang - Brilliant science fiction stories on humanity’s place in worlds of aliens, AI, virtual reality, and more. Chiang is a smart dude, is all I can say. FYI he wrote the story that became Arrival, the movie!

Visual storytelling

#minicomics

Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna - Veasna was a young child when his family fled Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s rule. He interviewed his family members, collected their stories, and wrote and illustrated a book. It’s brutal, but telling of humanity’s ability to adapt and survive.

Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang - Boxers and Saints revisits the Boxer Rebellion from two different perspectives, and as we know, history is never so black and white. Yang’s art is simple, but full of character and effective. FYI this is the same dude who wrote American Born Chinese!

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew - I read this when I thought I was going to Singapore… and then I didn’t. Anyway, this seemingly biographical graphic novel is actually more about the history of Singapore and life before it became a teeming hub of modernity. It is beautifully illustrated and conceptually amazing. If anyone ever read(s) this, hmu because I have thoughts.

WOATS

The worst of all time.

Just kidding, there weren’t any terrible ones.

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Random reflections

When I was very young, I remember asking my mom or dad what language we were speaking in. I was too young to know the word for “language”, but keen enough to understand that there was a difference between what my parents spoke to each other and what they spoke to me. Although vague, I had an early awareness of “English” and “Korean” and the fact that I was attuned to the former.

When I was younger, that curiosity led me to seeking books by or about Korean people. What I found at my elementary school library was encyclopedic-like books on the Korean peninsula. Anthropological observations, but what about stories? What I was really seeking was a book about a girl like me going to school and bickering with her siblings. Of course, many of these books were probably circulating in Korea in the Korean language, but not available to me in the US.

When I was younger, I found a book at school called Dragonkeeper. It was set in ancient China and told the tale of a young enslaved girl who learns that she is the first female Dragonkeeper. The book made me dream of dragons and adventure, and I could reasonably place myself in Ping’s shoes. It was the closest thing to what I wanted as a child.

When I was younger, I emailed the author of a children’s book series called Zodiac Girls. It featured a girl of each Zodiac sign and her coming of age story, which usually involved school squabbles or whatever else plagued adolescent girls. After seeing a book on Gemma the Gemini and Tori the Taurus, I really wanted to see a story about my star sign, Scorpio, and what better protagonist than one who resembled me? None of the Zodiac Girls were Asian, and I thought I could be a good reference.

When I continued to read for leisure in college, I started to not care about stories of privileged wealthy white people falling in love or bickering over the family estate. They were stories and feelings that did not resonate with me, and I made a sharp turn towards authors of color. Why I hadn’t done that sooner, I do not know.

I started exclusively reading books by Eastern Asians and those of the diaspora in 2022, or something like that. I was already trending that direction, but I decided to full send it. What ensued was a descent into worlds of strained familial relations, immigration stories, split identities, ruminations on the motherland, language, and feelings of isolation, loss, and otherness. The legacy of war, colonization, displacement, and destruction. For me, the thought that I’ll never be able to truly resonate with or understand the nuances of my mother and father’s tongue. That there will always be some buried history in my lineage that I won’t get. What I also found was joy in (re)connection, community, and knowledge. The wonder found in rich mythology, folklore, and superstitions. The modern retelling and recentering of American classics in the lens of Asian characters. The power of family and language.

Publishing is changing. I walk into bookstores and can easily spot a book written by an Asian author. I walk into my library and see a shelf of translated literature. I walk into my cousin’s kid’s room and get teary eyed at all the children’s books with Asian main characters and Asian names in the titles. It makes me happy to see these changes and to know that children can see themselves in these stories.

I originally wanted to write this review because I was seeing so many repeated patterns in Asian American literature. And I mean this in a sardonic way—I could list a couple of books about a strained mother-daughter relationship that turns to the mother going missing, or a dramatic reveal to the mother’s past. Or about the mystical East versus the practical West. You can see this tone come out in the Depressed-Asian-Girl-White-Guy category.

Interestingly, I was getting bored of what felt like rinse-and-repeated stories. How many times can I read about an embarrassed Korean kid bringing kimchi to school? In a way, I wanted to mock what I was seeing and call out the homogony of stories. But the truth is, I’m glad these books exist, no matter how seemingly trite. I realize that it’s more important that these stories exist in the first place and have a place in bookstores and libraries, even if the writing is so so or relies on the same themes. Like, if my past self knew about all the wonderful books she could read by Korean Americans, she’d be so delighted, you know? Writing this review, I feel grateful that I have so much I can talk about in the first place. But of course, I remain a critical reader.

Remember Cathy Hopkins, that author of Zodiac Girls? She never replied to me, at least I don’t think so. But upon research, she did come out with a book on the Scorpio star sign called Double Trouble in 2009. The main characters are twin sisters named Eve and Lilith and they butt heads or whatever, but guess what—they’re Asian! Whether my bumbling email had influence on Cathy Hopkins, I will never know. But for fun, we can totally say it did. Life is crazy!

MH

p.s. I could seriously talk about books for forever. Text me if you ever wanna talk books! I have a lot of opinions, especially on books in translation.

p.p.s. Shoutout to media consumer for inspiring me to write reviews.