No Amy Tan here

I opened my San Francisco Chronicle Book Review section on Sunday and, to my surprise, I found a review of Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World.

It’s an anthology of Asian American fiction, but not the kind that’s been popping up at bookstores with regularity since Amy Tan hit the scene.

From the review by freelance writer Wesley Yang:  “Aha, Asian American fiction — another of those books about Mama’s damn dumplings, with wronged wives and prostitutes running around everywhere, and being ‘between two cultures,’ with Grandma spouting her infernal wisdom during endless mah-jongg games. This is precisely what this updated collection of contemporary Asian American fiction is not.”

Makes me want to read it.

Harry Mok