A review by xanderman001
Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu

2.0

This was the literary equivalent of rushing into a relationship without having the first date as a foundation. Yu's ideas and commentary are brilliant, but the very point of view that he chooses to tell the story in does not marry well to the format of the novel. The 2nd person/screenplay perspective weakens interaction and dynamic that could be used to make the themes of dehumanization and immigration more interesting within Yu's philosophical setting of the Interior Chinatown. All of this results in the novel saying all its wanted to in the first 100 pages, leaving its central character to fulfill a prophecy that feels paradoxically forced and disconnected from the reading experience.

On a 10 point scale: 4/10