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Number One Chinese Restaurant

by Lillian Li
Number One Chinese Restaurant

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9781250141293
ISBN10: 125014129X
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Synopsis

"A joy to read--I couldn't get enough."
--Buzzfeed

"This novel practically thumps with heartache and sharp humor."
--Chang-rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Native Speaker

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.

Synopsis

Named a Summer Must-Read by TIME, Buzzfeed, Star Tribune, Fast Company, The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal, Toronto Star, InStyle, and O, The Oprah Magazine

"A joy to read--I couldn't get enough."
--Buzzfeed

"This novel practically thumps with heartache and sharp humor."
--Chang-rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Native Speaker

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.


5 1

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Average customer rating 5 (1 comments)

`
SeattleBookMama , June 12, 2018 (view all comments by SeattleBookMama)
Lillian Li’s debut novel , a tale of intra-family rivalry, intrigue, and torn loyalties is a barn burner; it captured my attention at the beginning, made me laugh out loud in the first chapter, and it never flagged. Many thanks go to Net Galley and Henry Holt Company, from whom I received a DRC.The book opens with bitter scheming on the part of Jimmy, one of two brothers that fall heir to the family restaurant after their father passes away. Jimmy has waited for the old man to die so that he could run the restaurant his own way. The Duck House serves greasy, cheap Chinese food, and he is sure he can do better. He craves elegance, a superior menu with superior ingredients. He wants renown, and he doesn’t want his brother Johnny to have one thing to do with it. Johnny’s in China. Johnny runs the business end of the restaurant, and he takes care of the front of the house. He’ll be back to Maryland in a heartbeat, though, when the Duck House burns down. Li does a masterful job of introducing a large cast of characters. There are the Honduran workers; there’s a love triangle involving Nan and Ah-Jack, who work in the restaurant, and Michelle, Ah-Jack’s estranged wife. Meanwhile Nan’s unhappy teenage sonpulls at her loyalties. But the most fascinating character is the sons’ widowed mother,Feng Fui, who serves as a powerful reminder not to underestimate senior citizens. Li is one of the most exciting, entertaining new voices in fiction since the Y2K, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Gan bei!

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781250141293
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
06/19/2018
Publisher:
HENRY HOLT & CO
Pages:
304
Height:
243.08 mm
Width:
6.42 in
Illustration:
Yes
Author:
Lillian Li

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List Price:$27.00
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