Disorientation

(Hardback)

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Description

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 fianc, 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.

Reviews

The funniest, most poignant novel of the year * Vogue *
Funny, fearless . . . acutely inspects the power of the white gaze, academic imperialism, peer rivalry and self-hate * Observer *
A rollicking, whip-smart ride through the hallowed halls of academia * Harpers Bazaar *
Witty, knowing and funny . . . If Donna Tartt set the bar for the noirish campus novel, Elaine Hsieh Chou is setting a new bar for sharp, sideways takes on academia * Evening Standard *
Chous pen is a scalpel. Disorientation addresses the private absurdities the soul must endure to get free, from tokenism, the quiet exploitation of well-meaning institutions, and the bondage that is self-imposed. Chou does it with wit and verve, and no one is spared. -- Raven Leilani, author of Luster
The funniest novel Ive read all year . . . Uproarious . . . packed full of sly truths about race, love, and life in generalall of which youre going to miss, because youll be laughing so hard * Aravind Adiga *
Funny and insightful, with plenty to say about art, identity, Orientalism and the politics of academia . . . entertaining, rising to a delightful climax * New York Times Book Review *
An irreverent campus satire that skewers white sclerotic academia, creepy Asian fetishists and twee boba tea liberalism . . . Helmed by a memorable screwball protagonist, the novel is both a joyous and sharply-drawn caper -- Cathy Park Hong
As the best comedy does, Disorientation manages to highlight uncomfortable truths, capture grey areas and hard lines, and resist sliding into easy binaries of heroes and villains * Vanity Fair *
Disorientation does what great comedies and satires are supposed to do: make you laugh while forcing you to ponder the uncomfortable implications of every punchline * Washington Post *
Captivating, irresistible, and intensely readable, and what we ultimately come to literature to find . . . a unique, propelling story * Chicago Review of Books *
A deeply smart, satirical novel that takes a critical look at racism in academia * Buzzfeed *
A multivalent pleasure, a deeply original debut novel that reinvents the campus novel satire as an Asian American literary studies whodunnit . . . Wickedly funny and knowing, Chous dagger wit is sure-eyed -- Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
A searing literary satire of campus politics * Entertainment Weekly *
A fresh, hilarious and thoughtful satire that'll make you think about cultural identity in a whole new way * Good Housekeeping *
Searing satire . . . Chou details her protagonists struggles with dry humour and wit * Time *
So many stifle-a-strangled-laugh lines . . . A send-up of the polite, cardigan-draped white supremacy of liberal arts colleges * Glamour *
A smart, satirical look at everything from the fetishization of Asian women to who is celebrated in modern academia * Electric Literature *
Hilariously tongue-in-cheek * i-D *

Author Bio

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.