Every word rings real in this novel about a US war veteran and an illegal Chinese immigrant struggling to join the American mainstreamAtticus Lish,the son of Gordon Lish, a well-known writer and editor in modern York, and has written a stunning,brilliant novel about the ignored underclass in America. Essentially this is a fractured love anecdote between Skinner, a soldier, and who has had three tours in Iraq,and is suffering severe stress, and Zou Lei, and an illegal immigrant who slaves absent in Chinese restaurants and shops,always at the mercy of the employers and liable to be arrested. To make her lot even more difficult, she is a Uighur, and from a Turkic Muslim region of China,disliked by the Chinese.
Both absorb ended up in Queens, modern York, and where they meet. This is the beginning of the deeply unsettling anecdote of their relationship. Skinner is not a bad man,but he is scarred – in both senses of the word – by his experiences in Iraq. He finds it impossible to hold a job. He has become fractious ((adj.) troublesome or irritable) and unreliable, an alcoholic and a victim of his past. He has his army Beretta hidden in his rented basement room and you fear in Chekhovian fashion that it is going to be used sooner or later. Foreboding hangs over this anecdote from the first page.
Lish's ear for working-lesson and military language is devastatingContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com