Title: Number One Chinese Restaurant
Author: Lillian Li
Genre: Adult Fiction
Published: June 19th 2018
Book Summary:
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Page Count: 304 pages
Format: Hardcover
Source: From the publisher in exchange of an honest review
Book Summary:
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.
*The Chef’s Review*
Actual rating: 4/5 stars
Number One Chinese Restaurant was an interesting read for me. This book approaches the day old question– what is the story behind every person we come across in the street, grocery store, or in this case, our favorite Chinese restaurant? We get to read about every person working as staff at The Beijing Duck House and learn about their troubles, their wishes, their everyday life, and how each and every one of them stop seeing each other as coworkers and more like a family. And isn’t that true? After working for some time with the same people, we stop being strangers and somehow become a second family. However, like most families, hell breaks lose and it threatens to sabotage the restaurant’s harmony.
From all the characters points of view (because we get many) I believe the voice that stood out to me the most was Nan’s, the restaurant’s manager. She is a woman who deals with a lot of conflicts and it seemed she could hardly catch a break. She deals with work and personal struggles and even though I did not agree with her decisions, Nan is the character that I felt was the most intriguing. Another character that I enjoyed reading was Feng Fei Wang, the original owner of the restaurant and mother of the current owners. She started as a poor fragile mother, but when she starts to feel she is being treated unfairly, she quickly transforms into a sassy hard-core character. Aah, she reminded me of my grandmother! I wish I could have seen more of her inside the story.
Another thing that I would like to point out is that as a chef, I was really looking forward to reading more about the restaurant and its food. The title in a way is misleading, but once I got past that, I fell into the rhythm of the story and its characters and I was able to focus on the book’s true intentions. To me, those were how everyone felt rooted to The Beijing Duck House. The characters’ disappointments in life, their drama and failures, the age and cultural differences, how everyone is tied together by working in the establishment and the changes in their lives if they no longer work in it.
Final Verdict:
Number One Chinese Restaurant is a compelling read that showcases the inner struggles of a family-owned Chinese restaurant and its staff. Dark humor and overall great narrative make this a solid read worth to check out.
Happy reading! — The Chef
