Diksia.com - The Family Chao is a 2022 novel by the American novelist Lan Samantha Chang, published by W. W. Norton. It won the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction and was named on Barack Obama’s 2022 Summer Reading List. The novel is a modern reimagining of the classic novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, set in a Chinese American family of chefs in the fictional town of Haven, Wisconsin.
Plot Summary
The novel focuses on the Chao family, who own and run the Fine Chao Restaurant, a popular and successful establishment that serves Americanized Chinese food. The family consists of Leo Chao, the patriarch and founder of the restaurant, his wife Winnie, and their three sons: Dagou, Ming, and James.
Leo is a charismatic but tyrannical figure, who dominates and exploits his family and employees. Winnie is a loyal but unhappy wife, who suffers from Leo’s infidelity and abuse. Dagou is the eldest son and the head chef of the restaurant, who inherits his father’s temper and ambition.
Ming is the middle son and the most successful of the siblings, who works as a lawyer in New York but struggles with his identity and sexuality. James is the youngest son and the most gentle of the brothers, who studies literature at the University of Wisconsin but feels lost and aimless.
The novel is divided into two sections. The first, titled “They See Themselves,” builds up to the demise of Leo Chao, who is found dead in his office, presumably murdered.
The second, titled “The World Sees Them,” tracks the trial of one of the three sons for the murder, as well as the aftermath of the family tragedy. The novel explores the themes of family, identity, race, class, justice, and redemption, as well as the role of food and culture in shaping one’s life.
Writing and Development
The Family Chao is Chang’s third novel and fourth book of fiction. It follows the novels All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost (2010) and Inheritance (2004), and the short story collection Hunger (1998).
Chang, who is the first female and first Asian American director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, has said that her first three books “fit the acceptable stereotype of the quietly suffering Chinese American family,” even though she “actually grew up in a noisy Chinese American family.”
The Family Chao, she has said, is her first time writing in a “candid” way. The Chao family at the center of the book is not based on hers but is in some ways closer to hers than those in the previous books.
Chang has also said that the book is a homage to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which she read and admired as a teenager.
She has said that she wanted to write a novel that would capture the “complexity and richness” of Dostoevsky’s characters and themes, but in a contemporary and American context. She has also said that she wanted to write a novel that would be “funny and entertaining,” as well as “serious and profound.”
Reception and Accolades
The Family Chao was released to critical acclaim in the US. Publishers Weekly called it “Ingenious and cunning,” concluding that, “For Chang, this marks a triumphant return.” The Guardian praised “the way the novel dramatises the gap between how a family wants to be seen, and its messier inner realities,” terming it “a wonderful comedy of American consumption.”
NPR wrote that it is “a riveting character-driven novel that delves beautifully into human psychology.” The Star Tribune described it as “operatic and subversive, a playful literary romp with a serious heart.” The Asian Review of Books wrote: “Chang’s debt to the original Dostoevsky story is largely limited to the characterization of the brothers and their overbearing father.
She uses the Wisconsin backdrop—the state where she was born and raised—to discuss race and identity in America, all while balancing her story with humorous and absurd scenes, including the play on words with the family name, as in Fine Chao, the name of their restaurant.”
The novel also received several awards and honors, including the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, which recognizes books that “contribute to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of cultural diversity.”
The novel was also selected by former US president Barack Obama as one of his summer reads in 2022, along with other books such as Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Conclusion
The Family Chao is a novel that combines mystery, comedy, and cuisine in a captivating and original way. It is a novel that reimagines a classic work of literature in a new and diverse setting, and that explores the complexities and contradictions of family, identity, and culture.
It is a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and hungry for more. If you are looking for a novel that is both entertaining and enlightening, you should definitely check out The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang.
