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A review by ellaellaellaetc
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
3.5
oh tea. this is a satire about a chinese girlie in her like 8th year or something of doing her PhD on a made up late chinese american poet (who in his universe is like on of the most famous poet of the 20th century). she initially does not want to do her PhD on him since he is so widely studied already and she feels like she doesn't have anything to contribute but she was persuaded into doing her PhD on him by the (white) head of east asian studies who insinuated that she could get tenure by choosing him as her subject. the book kicks off when she's a few years into her PhD and she hates her life and she doesn't know what she wants her thesis to be on.
this sounds like the start of a sad girl lit fic novel but it ends up feeling kind of like movie?? (if you're looking for a sad lit fic novel with basically this premise I read chemistry by weike wang in jan and loved it, stay tuned for that review). I saw one review comparing this to a book version of an snl skit or onion article and I would be inclined to agree. while I did enjoy the reading experience of this, idk if I would necessarily call it good? like the commentary was extremely on the nose in ways that sometimes didn't feel intentionally funny (or at least funny in the way that I found them to be funny). to be completely honest I think that this story would have been better told in the form of a movie!
I think what I'm getting at is that I think this book took itself a bit too seriously for what it was. anyway, if you're interested in reading a satire about white men's obsession with asian cultures (and more so, white men becoming authorities of east asian cultures), white man/asian woman couples, leftist group in fighting, right wing commentators/social media this is the book for you!
and I will just say that my favourite moment of the whole book comes from a side plot where the main character "goes undercover" in the socialist group protesting a play at the uni. she really does not understand what's going on nor does she really understand the point of the sjw group so when she's asked to make up a slogan for her sign she goes "uh... I hate white people?" and then she's just standing outside of the theatre with a "I hate white people" sign😭😭 bro why did that make me laugh so hard😭😭 anyway. pls @studios pls turn this into a really funny campy movie😁😁 3.5 stars p.s. shout out to everyone's second favourite book recommender natasha for lending me her copy! (to be clear i'm everyon's first fav book recommender)
this sounds like the start of a sad girl lit fic novel but it ends up feeling kind of like movie?? (if you're looking for a sad lit fic novel with basically this premise I read chemistry by weike wang in jan and loved it, stay tuned for that review). I saw one review comparing this to a book version of an snl skit or onion article and I would be inclined to agree. while I did enjoy the reading experience of this, idk if I would necessarily call it good? like the commentary was extremely on the nose in ways that sometimes didn't feel intentionally funny (or at least funny in the way that I found them to be funny). to be completely honest I think that this story would have been better told in the form of a movie!
I think what I'm getting at is that I think this book took itself a bit too seriously for what it was. anyway, if you're interested in reading a satire about white men's obsession with asian cultures (and more so, white men becoming authorities of east asian cultures), white man/asian woman couples, leftist group in fighting, right wing commentators/social media this is the book for you!
and I will just say that my favourite moment of the whole book comes from a side plot where the main character "goes undercover" in the socialist group protesting a play at the uni. she really does not understand what's going on nor does she really understand the point of the sjw group so when she's asked to make up a slogan for her sign she goes "uh... I hate white people?" and then she's just standing outside of the theatre with a "I hate white people" sign😭😭 bro why did that make me laugh so hard😭😭 anyway. pls @studios pls turn this into a really funny campy movie😁😁 3.5 stars p.s. shout out to everyone's second favourite book recommender natasha for lending me her copy! (to be clear i'm everyon's first fav book recommender)