The Family Chao - Lan Samantha Chang

AUTHOR: Lan Samantha Chang

GENRE: Retelling, Historical Fiction, Chinese.

RATING: 2 stars for the book, and an added 1 star for the narration.

In a Nutshell: Strongly mixed feelings. The adaptation from a classic is faithfully done, but those who don’t know the original might just be left furious at the stereotypical depiction of Chinese Americans.

Story:

Leo Chao has been running a restaurant serving Americanized-Chinese food in Haven, Wisconsin since thirty five years. He isn’t honest, his wife Winnie isn’t happy at being the resident unappreciated cook, ad his three sons have taken their distinct paths in life but none of them are truly satisfied. The eldest, Dagou - a man who thinks more from the heart than from the head, attempted music studies before returning to the restaurant as the head chef. The second, Ming – a successful businessman who hates his Chinese roots, struggles between his two identities. The youngest, James – a medical student who is kind and unambitious much to the disappointment of his kin, is stuck in the role of peacemaker.

One Christmas Eve, Leo is found dead in the restaurant freezer, presumed murdered. Soon the three brothers find themselves at the centre of a harsh public eye. How will the change in circumstances change their fates?

The story is written in a third person omniscient narration.

Those who have read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ (or like me, taken the smart way out and watched the Yul Brynner movie 😉) will immediately spot that this is a retelling of the classic. (The blurbs on GR and Amazon don’t specify this fact, but the connection is obvious. The title also gives a nod to the original book.) The thing is, ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ was written by a Russian writer in 1879. He specialised in focussing on human behaviour under the troubled philosophical and social constructs of 19th century Russia. So this retelling is not just transposing a classic to the contemporary world but also transposing a Russian cultural story to a Chinese one, and a 19th century philosophy to the 21st century thinking. Not an easy job, and definitely not a recommended metamorphosis. This is an ambitious endeavour, and this is exactly why the book falters.

Leo Chao, who is the equivalent of Fyodor Karamazov from the original, is as vulgar and irritating as his Russian counterpart. For a 21st century person, this kind of lewd behaviour will cause many to blow their tops. I know mine did. I had to remind myself time and again that it’s a retelling of an old story. That’s the only way I could reach till the end. The same kind of oafish behaviour is also seen to a certain extent in the three sons, though none of them is in the same pits of moral degradation as their father. The book improves to a certain extent in the second half. The courtroom scenes helped salvage the story somewhat but it is a bit too late by then.

There’s a line in the book, from a scene where Ming is doing a radio broadcast. It goes: “Are you looking for strange flavours, ethnic exoticism, family hostility, immigrant anxiety, served with a heady dash of hatred?” That’s exactly what you are getting in this story, but with a huge dollop of cultural stereotypes added. I don’t come from Chinese ancestry, and yet I found my blood boiling at the third-rate portrayal of the American Chinese. I wonder how those who belong to this culture would react to this book. None of the characters are depicted in any positive way, with a minor exception of James. Then again, he too is the stereotype of the good Asian boy who wants to study his way up the social hierarchy and make his parents proud of him.

(This kind of reminds me of how I felt reading Thrity Umrigar’s “The Spaces Between Us”. While the Western world goes gaga over the story, all I could see is hackneyed stereotypes and a strongly negative portrayal of my city and my people. I have a strong feeling Chinese Americans will feel the same way while reading this book. Well, at least Lan Samantha Chang has a (minor) justification in that she used the original Russian characters as a base for her plot. Umrigar has no such defence and is hence a greater villain in my eyes.)

For me, this book served as a good reminder of why some classics ought not to be retold for newer audiences. The Brothers Karamazov is one of them. It served well for the time it was written in and for the way its author raised existential questions from the characters’ dilemmas. In this book, the philosophy has been culled out to a bare minimum, and this further dilutes the purpose of the original. It should not have been modernised.

The audiobook clocks at 11 hours and is narrated by Brian Nishii. He was outstanding in his narration. One full star of my rating is for his performance. I highly appreciate his decision of not nasalising the voices of the female characters, rather, just voicing them at a softer pitch. I wish all male narrators did that. The audio version is a bit confusing at the start, but once you come to know the plethora of characters, it goes by smoothly.

Overall, I would recommend this ONLY if you have read the original and want to see how it would have worked in a contemporary period. Definitely not a must-read. If you just want to know the story, might as well read the original, or if you are like me and struggle with old Russian tomes, watch the Yul Brynner movie instead.

My thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Family Chao”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.