American Knees [Paperback]

Shawn Wong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2005

American Knees is about relationships, sex, work, and family obligations. In other words, it's about life. "American Knees (a takeoff on the old schoolyard song, 'Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees...') is the story of how Raymond Ding, a politically correct man with a politically incorrect sense of humor, falls into, and out of, love with newspaper photographer Aurora Crane. As Raymond and Aurora's story unfolds, Wong crafts some wonderfully telling and funny scenes of social relations in multicultural America." Seattle Weekly "Wong overturns the racial stereotypes perpetrated against Asians in this country, and he does so with humor to spare...No one has more eloquently or joyfully asserted our belonging." David Wong Louie, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Shawn Wong adds a funny, sexy chapter to Asian American literature...A multi-cultural comedy that relentlessly lampoons the incidents and incidentals of modern Asian American life." Julie Shiroishi, San Francisco Bay Guardian "With American Knees, Wong constructs a fast-paced world of botched romances, sexual and racial stereotypes, and unfulfilled longing." A. Magazine "I cracked up reading Shawn Wong's witty, tender, wise, and sexy new novel. His lovable but ambivalent protagonist collides memorably with a cast of female characters who are a welcome change from the shrinking violets and silent martyrs we've come to expect from 'ethnic' literature. American Knees is contemporary to the bone - a highly entertaining, deftly written, provocative and moving work of fiction." Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his second novel, Wong (Homebase) discursively traces the course of true love through the rapids of ethnicity, feminism and Asian stereotypes. Second-generation Chinese-American hero Raymond Ding's cultural and amatory uncertainty goes back to a schoolyard taunt, "Are you Chinese, Japanese, or American knees?" that he has responded to with overcompensation, particularly in love. As a dutiful firstborn son, he marries a Chinese woman (whose hierarchical family runs a restaurant empire); after getting a divorce as well as a position in Minority Affairs at a California college, he carries on a slightly sententious affair with Aurora Crane, a young half-Japanese Midwesterner. Raymond, Aurora and the other characters spend much of their time talking, whether about relationships or other subjects ranging from interracial dating to Hop Sing, the Chinese cook on Bonanza. This allows Wong plenty of trenchant observation and sardonic commentary, but the dialogue tends to advance the plot without adding much momentum or insight into the characters mouthing it. Though the story winds up reuniting its principals through a deterministic plot twist, its power is dissipated by the disembodied telephone debates over hyphenated identity. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this light-hearted novel, Raymond Deng finds true happiness with a half-Asian, half-American beauty.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295984961
• ISBN-13: 978-0295984964
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not for everyone, May 26, 2002

By 

Beijing Bookworm (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Knees: A Novel (Paperback)

This book was funny, and truly thought provoking. It's definitely not politically correct, asking questions about the differences between dating someone that's white or asian, or asian/american. (Sometimes I cringe at the comments but feel privy to such frank discussions.) The descriptions are sharp, witty, fast and funny! Asian "eurotrash... West Hollywood is about as far east as this guy goes"

It's good description of an asian in american trying to find his identity and balance of cultures as he stumbles for love. (Should his partner be a reflection of self?)

It deals with personal doubts. Do other people really stare and doubt the interracial couple or the 'foreigner', or are 'we' just paranoid? There are some hidden comments that lead you to realize that identity crisis isn't just over race. Guys "wear their obligation on the outside... it says they have to run and bring the paycheck home"

It's quite an erotic book too!

I was so entertained that I finished the book in two days! At times the asian banter seemed too much, and the ending seemed to lack the passion and fire that was in the 1st 3/4 of the book. But I give it 4 stars for it's wit, depiction of identity lorn asian americans, and it's fresh take on an a common theme!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet love story transcends & illuminates ethnicity, June 30, 2000

By 

Carol S. (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: American Knees: A Novel (Paperback)

Let me start by saying that I am not of Asian-American ethnicity - I am a white American of primarily Eastern European descent. Nonetheless, I found plenty to enjoy (and enlighten me) in "American Knees." The novel is a bittersweet love story about Raymond (a Chinese-American) and Aurora (who is "half" Japanese, as she calls herself). Their cultural identities and familial ties are only some of the tangled emotional threads that threaten to choke their relationship; the age difference (Raymond is a generation older) and the dreaded twin fears of intimacy and commitment, for example, are also explored. I found the characters interesting and engaging, and their many conversations about race and ethnic identity in America were fascinating and eye-opening to this white woman. I suspect that members of other ethnic and religious groups for whom cultural identity and "intermarriage" are issues (Jews? African-Americans? Indian-Americans?) will find these discussions even more compelling. My criticisms of the novel: (1) these same dialogues about race and ethnicity tend to disrupt the flow of the story somewhat; (2) the main characters' insistence on focusing on their differences instead of their common ground frustrated me. Perhaps I am naive or a hopeless romantic, but I think if you are lucky enough to find someone that you love, and they love you back, you should do everything in your power to make it work - not dwell on your differences; (3) the ending was somewhat unsatisfying. I'm not sure if this is because I just didn't like what was going on in Raymond's head at the end, or if the cryptic nature of the last few paragraphs threw me. Overall, however,I think this is an enjoyable book well worth exploring.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, not politically correct, March 3, 2006

By 

Richard L. Goldfarb (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Knees: A Novel (Paperback)

This novel presents a point of view that is new to me, the viewpoint of an Asian American male dealing with the culture of growing older in an increasingly complex society within a society. Raymond is Chinese American, but has never been to China, divorced from a Chinese woman who took him for everything he had and not sure where to go with the rest of his life. The first line of the book is intriguing and I fear many reviewers missed its import. Is it possible through a divorce to lose not just material possessions but your ethnic identity as well? The rest of the book is Raymond's exploration of this question. Professionally involved in ethnic politics, the topic dogs him in all his relationships with women, including his half-Japanese, half-Irish girl friend Aurora, his Vietnamese immigrant girl friend Betty and Aurora's friend Brenda, who is all-Japanese and all suspicious of Raymond. As the novel progresses, it becomes more evident that the real Raymond is defined by his relationship with his widower father Wood (short for Woodrow, like his brothers named for a US President). For me, the seminal moment in the book was Raymond's discovery that his father's personality was as much derived from his engineering background as his Chinese ancestry, a discovery that liberated him from whatever ghosts had haunted him from his failed marriage to Darlene and his mother's early death, and which allowed him to become the person Aurora could love and trust. The book is well-written but it requires the reader to fill in some blanks and do more work than the typical novel. It is not for everyone, but it is a book that actually teaches while it entertains.