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Book Reviewed by:From the outside, the Chengs seem like so-called model immigrants. Once Patty landed a tech job near Dallas, she and Liang grew secure enough to have a second child, and to send for their first from his grandparents back in China. Isn't this what they sacrificed so much for?
But then little Annabel begins to sleepwalk at night, putting into motion a string of misunderstandings that not only threaten to set their community against them but force to the surface the secrets that have made them fear one another. How can a man make peace with the terrors of his past? How can a child regain trust in unconditional love? How can a family stop burying its history and forge a way through it, to a more honest intimacy?
Nights When Nothing Happened is gripping storytelling immersed in the crosscurrents that have reshaped the American landscape, from a prodigious new literary talent.
Annabel's nocturnal behavior is a metaphor for the ways in which the Chengs, particularly the parents, are sleepwalking through their lives. Han's characterization of Patty and Liang is expert; their parental negligence is fully explored as a consequence of their personal insecurities and backstories. Patty is singularly focused on her work because it gives her confidence and a sense of purpose. Liang's mother died when he was young and he was raised by an abusive, often absent father. Thus he had no model from which to learn how to be a parent. Han's novel is fundamentally a story about an immigrant family, but how this aspect of the Chengs' lives might relate to Annabel's behavioral issues or the problems in Patty and Liang's marriage remains ambiguous, just outside the narrative frame...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
Simon Han's debut novel Nights When Nothing Happened is set in Plano, Texas, located about 20 miles north of Dallas and 50 miles northeast of Fort Worth. The Chengs, who are Chinese American, have chosen to live in Plano because it is a safe community with good schools, but what's not stated overtly is that the city and surrounding area also have a fairly large East Asian population, including people of Korean, Japanese and Chinese descent. The 2010 United States census put the number of Chinese people living in Plano at 14,500, but in a 2012 interview with D Magazine, executive vice president of the Association of Chinese Professionals Charlie Yue suggested that the real number could be closer to 30,000, which would make up about 10 ...
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Simon Han explores the desire to belong—to a marriage, a family, a community, a country. Nights When Nothing Happened is about how we use words and silences to connect and to wound, and how we make sacrifices for those we love. It broke my heart and gave me hope, all at the same time.
