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Ed Lin is
the author of
Waylaid.
Published by
Kaya in 2002,
Waylaid was
universally
praised in a
broad range of
publications
including
Booklist,
Asianweek and
Playboy. Waylaid
was named to
Booklist's
Editors Choice
2002 list and
also won the
Members’ Choice
Award from the
Asian American
Writers Workshop
in 2003. This Is
a Bust, Lin’s
second novel,
was published by
Kaya Press in
December 2007 to
a
pre-publication
starred review
in Booklist.
Blog:
www.edlinforpresident.com
Waylaid
is the story of
a Chinese
American boy
struggling to
grow up amidst
the drudgery and
sexual innuendo
of his parentıs
sleazy motel on
the Jersey
Shore.
Conscripted into
the family
business, the
protagonist
spends his
summer days and
afterschool
hours renting
out rooms to
johns and
hookers, lonely
old men, and
families whose
homes have been
repossessed. He
becomes obsessed
with losing his
virginity, a
preoccupation
whose very
intensity
reflects a
society that
delivers sex as
a distraction
from despair. In
its blackly
humorous
exploration of
immigrant dreams
and working
class realities,
Waylaid is a
switchblade in
the gut to
stories of
overachievement
and success that
ignore the human
cost.
This Is a Bust,
the second novel
by award-winning
author Ed Lin,
turns the
conventions of
hard-boiled pulp
stories on their
head by
exploring the
unexotic and
very real
complexities of
New York City’s
Chinatown, circa
1976, through
the eyes of a
Chinese-American
cop. A Vietnam
vet and an
alcoholic,
Robert Chow’s
troubles are
compounded by
the fact that
he’s basically
community-relations
window-dressing
for the NYPD:
he’s the only
Chinese American
on the Chinatown
beat, and the
only police
officer who can
speak Cantonese,
but he’s never
assigned
anything more
challenging than
appearances at
store openings
or community
events. Chow is
willing to stuff
down his
feelings and
hang tight for a
promotion to the
detective track,
despite the
community unrest
that begins to
roil around him.
But when his
superiors remain
indifferent to
an old Chinese
woman’s death,
he is forced to
take matters
into his own
hands. This
Is a Bust
is at once a
murder mystery,
a noir homage
and a
devastating,
uniquely nuanced
portrait of a
neighborhood in
flux, stuck
between old
rivalries and
youthful
idealism.
For more
information:
jennifer.hayashida@hunter.cuny.edu
Sponsored by
Hunter College
Asian American
Studies Program
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CUNY Asian
American / Asian
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