10 books that remind us there is no singular Asian American experience
As a kid, the only Asian American literature that crossed my path was heavily stylized and historical. Books like Laurence Yep’s “Dragonwings” and Ed Young’s “Lon Po Po” were important, but felt radically different from my own American life in Iowa in the 1990s. My invisibility and illegibility to others were echoed back to me by the resounding absence of books that reflected my experiences at school and at the public library. It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I finally recognized parts of myself in literature, starting with books like Lisa Ko’s “The Leavers”, Nicole Chung’s “All You Can Ever Know”, and Charles Yu’s “Interior Chinatown”. Getting that taste made me voracious for more...
