A review by thecriticalreader
The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang

dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

The Satisfaction Cafe by Kathy Wang starts strong but loses steam as it fixates on the many problems of a dysfunctional wealthy family. 
 
Books about messy wealthy families can be fun. In an era of hyper-income inequality, sometimes we need to indulge in stories where rich people are miserable and self-destructive. We can assuage our envy by imagining them to be shallow, greedy people whose money causes more problems than solutions. However, the literary fiction market has reached a bit of a saturation point with these types of stories, and I was disappointed that The Satisfaction Cafe is yet another “dysfunctional rich family behaving badly” book.
 
The book doesn’t start out that way. In fact, Wang starts the story with a bang as we follow Joan, an immigrant from Taiwan who ends up stabbing her first husband six weeks into marriage for being an abusive creep. While completing her master’s degree in mathematics at Stanford University, Joan starts a relationship with, and eventually marries, a wealthy older white American named Bill. Bill and his family are all terrible, dysregulated people. Their antics are initially entertaining in a rather infuriating way; for instance, Bill’s sister Misty abandons her baby because the child is “just a problem I have to deal with, the same as a clogged drain or a car that won’t start.” As the book goes on, however, the book’s focus on the family’s self-destruction and misfortune becomes depressing; the story borderlines on trauma porn, as if Wang has a goal to inflict as many types of horrors on her characters as possible. 
 
Contrary to expectations given the title and synopsis, the titular Satisfaction Cafe plays a minor role in the book. It doesn’t come into existence until the book is almost finished, and even then maintains something of a background presence. Far from being inspirational or heartwarming, the cafe seems like a dubious idea. Joan hires a bunch of random people to act as “hosts” who are paid hourly to sit and essentially act as therapists for customers without any of the training or protections afforded to those in the mental health profession. Regardless, Wang does not spend nearly enough time detailing the cafe or its impact on the characters. The story instead clunks along, throwing in a hefty dose of additional hardship and trauma at the characters before reaching an underwhelming (one might say unsatisfying) conclusion. 
 
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