Cover image from Goodreads.com
Willis Wu is a background actor on Black & White (a police procedural with a Black cop and a white cop) and strives to be more than just Generic Asian Man. Someday, maybe he’ll reach the top and become Kung Fu Guy, but first he must work his way up from Generic Asian Man #3, then #2, and finally #1. In between, he dies on screen, cannot act for six weeks, and provides the reader with some backstory about his parents and their struggles with fitting into their roles.
But this novel is more than that. It’s an unflinching gaze into what it must be like to be Asian in America; shoved to the sidelines and kept below a glass ceiling.
The story is told in screenplay format, which helps immerse the reader in the perpetual filming of the show while also demonstrating how the entire lives of the characters are defined by their roles on the show. This is both suffocating and illuminating.
This novel is clever, intriguing, and at its core, heartfelt.
There is a Netflix show of the same name based on the novel running at the time I’m writing this. While the show is entertaining on its own, the book has depth and a social message that I didn’t see in the show.
Should Be Writing 