Your Favorite Book with Elaine Hsieh Chou – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1]

Welcome to another installment of a collaboration between the Chicago Review of Books and the Your Favorite Book podcast. Malavika Praseed, frequent CHIRB contributor and podcast host, seeks to talk to readers and writers about the books that light a fire inside them. What’s your favorite book and why?

This week’s guest is Elaine Hsieh Chou, whose debut novel Disorientation is part campus novel, part political satire, part analysis of Asian American identity, and adds up to far more than the sum of its parts. The novel follows Ingrid, a PhD student making her way through her dissertation on Chinese-American poet Xiao-Wen Chou. Through her research she comes across a shocking discovery that throws not only her research into new light, but every aspect of her day to day life. Her family life, romantic relationship, friendships, and relationship to her Asian identity at large. As things spiral further out of control, Ingrid is forced to reexamine her worldview and fight for the reality she wants, even if it goes against what she’s currently constructed for herself.

Chou celebrates the off-the-rails satire by celebrating Fran Ross’s 1974 novel Oreo. This book, an interpretation of the myth of Theseus starring a biracial teen, was unappreciated in its time and warrants more consideration. Oreo, our titular character, goes on an epic quest to uncover the secret of her birth, and along the way battles adversaries large and small. The novel defies our modern concepts of characterization and interiority, and in ways is both very of its time and ahead of its time. We discuss the merits of experiencing the novel both in print and via audio, the inherent wackiness of Greek mythology, and why this book remains uncelebrated in a world that worships Ulysses. Even if you’ve never read Oreo, it’s certainly worth the listen. As always, there are no spoilers here.