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An uproarious and bighearted satire - alive with sharp edges, immense warmth, and a cast of unforgettable characters - that asks: who gets to tell our stories? And how does the story change when we finally tell it ourselves?
Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is desperate to finish her dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou and never read about 'Chinese-y' things again. When she accidentally stumbles upon a strange and curious note in the Chou archives, she convinces herself it's her ticket out of academic hell.
But Ingrid's in much deeper than she thinks. Her clumsy exploits to unravel the note's message lead to an explosive discovery, one that upends her entire life and the lives of those around her. With her trusty friend Eunice Kim by her side and her rival Vivian Vo hot on her tail, together they set off a roller coaster of mishaps and misadventures, from campus protests and over-the-counter drug hallucinations, to book burnings and a movement that stinks of Yellow Peril propaganda. In the aftermath, nothing looks the same, including her gentle and doting fiancé, Stephen Greene . . . As the events Ingrid instigated keep spiraling, she'll have to confront her sticky relationship to white men and white institutions - and, most of all, herself.
'The funniest novel I've read all year' Aravind Adiga
About the author
Elaine Hsieh Chou is a Taiwanese American writer from California. A 2017 NYU Rona Jaffe Graduate Fellow and 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow, her short fiction appears in Black Warrior Review, Guernica, Tin House Online, and Ploughshares. Disorientation is her first novel.
Summary
'The funniest novel I’ve read all year' – Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is a bighearted satire – alive with sharp edges, immense warmth, and a cast of unforgettable characters – that asks: who gets to tell our stories? And how does the story change when we finally tell it ourselves?
Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is desperate to finish her dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou and never read about ‘Chinese-y’ things. When she accidentally stumbles upon a strange and curious note in the Chou archives, she convinces herself it’s her ticket out of academic hell.
But Ingrid’s in much deeper than she thinks. Her clumsy exploits to unravel the note’s message lead to an explosive discovery, one that upends her entire life and the lives of those around her. With her trusty friend Eunice Kim by her side and her rival Vivian Vo hot on her tail, together they set off a roller coaster of mishaps and misadventures, from campus protests and over-the-counter drug hallucinations, to book burnings and a movement that stinks of Yellow Peril propaganda. In the aftermath, nothing looks the same, including her gentle and doting fiancé . . .
As the events Ingrid instigated keep spiraling, she’ll have to confront her sticky relationship to white men and white institutions – and, most of all, herself.
Foreword
Disorientation is at once a blistering send-up of privilege and power, and a profound reckoning of individual complicity and unspoken rage – an electrifying debut novel from a provocative new voice.
Additional text
Disorientation is an irreverent campus satire that skewers white sclerotic academia, creepy Asian fetishists and twee boba tea liberalism, but lastly and most importantly, it’s a satire, inspired by recent controversies, about an orientalist tradition and its manifestations today. Helmed by a memorable screwball protagonist, the novel is both a joyous and sharply-drawn caper.
Report
The funniest, most poignant novel of the year Vogue
