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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.
Excerpt
Nights When Nothing Happened
Late August and early September were the long days of learning. The locker-lined walls of Fillmore Middle School penned Jack in, while his sister's school, Plano Star Care, shuttled its students on field trips ambitious even for the gifted. During her third week of kindergarten, after a visit to the JFK assassination museum, Annabel used a word she'd never used before: fascinating. "They got video," she told their mother as the two of them sat at the kitchen table, tearing the ends off green beans. "Fascinating."
In the adjoining living room, the TV in front of Jack announced the latest scandal in the Catholic Church. Numbers were thrown out. Twelve. Eighty-four. Five hundred and fifty-two. These were scary numbers, the steely eyed commentator stated. Before the commercial break, she promised that they would return to the war coverage.
"He was in the car," Annabel said. "And the car had no roof. And his head went blam! Like when Daddy dropped the ...
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
(726 words)
(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
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. Bryan Washington, author of Lot
Absolutely luminous. Han weaves the transience of suburbia between the highs and lows of a family saga, illustrating what a parent owes a child, what a child owes their parents, and what simply cannot be repaid. His novel shocks, awes, and delights. Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang
In this beautiful, unsettling novel, Simon Han captures the state of being awake and yet asleep, of belonging and yet not, of waiting for the moment when the world opens up. With the turn of a crystalline sentence, he reveals how fragile we are, and what it takes to survive. An unbelievable debut. Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and Birds of America
A tender, spiky family saga about love in all its mysterious incarnations. Simon Han is a wonderfully adventurous and sensitive writer.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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