Dysfunctional Families
This novel is a modern-day Americanized reinterpretation of perhaps the ultimate novel ever written about dysfunctional families, The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. The titular family is ruled with an iron fist by a patriarch who demands much from his family but only gives when there is something to be gained personally. A major revelation of the story involves the true identity of a half-sibling the father hid from the brothers. As with its inspiration, three brothers compete for the attention and favor of their father. Complicating those relationships is less than happy marriages, the struggle over the inheritance of the family restaurant, and, most notably, the zenith of family dysfunction: a trial to determine whether or not patricide has been committed.
The Immigrant Experience
As the family name indicates, this story is about a family of Chinese descent. Set in a small town in Wisconsin, however, the novel is less a story about Chinese traditions and family than about the experience of Chinese-American immigrants. This thematic exploration extends far beyond the expectation of racial prejudice directed not just toward the Chao family but outward from the Chao family. Certain characters are more accepting of their Chinese heritage than others which allows for the story to make even more complex observations even about racism directed toward the self. In addition, issues of invisibility among and within minority groups are explored from both the perspective of invisibility being a choice and not being a choice.
Loyalty and Obligation
Questions and confrontations about the expectations of loyalty and obligations appear in various forms throughout the novel. The brother put on trial for murdering his father recently broke off his engagement to a longtime friend of the family to start seeing a white woman. He then proceeds to put loyalty to the test by pressuring his brothers to support him in the face of opposition to this decision from his parents. That same brother, Dagou, also feels that his father should oblige his loyalty to the family when he is called upon to help with the restaurant by making him a partner. In his eyes, his father fails this test of loyalty miserably not only by refusing the request but insulting him as being incapable of the job as well. And then, of course, there is the story of that half-sibling who is deeply resentful of Mr. Chao’s treatment of his mistress and has perhaps come not so much looking for an obligation to be fulfilled but ensuring that an obligation will be met.
