This Is a Bust [Paperback]

Ed Lin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2007

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lin (Waylaid) examines the life of a 1976 Chinatown beat cop in his understated second novel. Young officer Robert Chow is unabashedly used by the NYPD to create the illusion of diversity in the force, despite anti-Asian bias from white cops who don't know or don't care that Chow served with U.S. forces in Vietnam. Chow can't get his superiors' attention when he suspects that a woman may have been murdered by her husband, and he soon finds himself caught between the corrupt rulers of the local Chinese-American community and the average men and women who toil for meager wages to survive. Chow is a little too enigmatic to engage most readers, and the murder plot remains in the background throughout much of the story; nonetheless, Lin succeeds at recreating his chosen time and place, even if authors like Reggie Nadelson and S.J. Rozan have better handled issues of assimilation and real-life policing.
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Review

Lin follows his smashing debut, Waylaid (2002), with a murder mystery, sorta. There's a murder in it, and the narrator-protagonist, NYPD foot patrolman Robert Chow, figures out whodunit. But if that's why you finish the novel, you're a strange one. This is, like Waylaid, a brilliant, economical character, setting, and period piece. The token Chinese cop in 1976 Chinatown, Chow is a 25-year-old Vietnam vet suffering from what would later be called post-traumatic stress disorder. He copes by drinking heavily when off duty. Thinking himself a failure for having returned to Chinatown, he is briefly uplifted by a short affair with a brainy high-school classmate, but that's a flash in the pan. When he finally starts dating the beautiful 20-year-old he buys his daily coffee from, things start turning toward a fairly happy ending. Before he reaches it, though, he has to kick the bottle, which is a beast and a bear to do, and involves discovering that the friendly faces of many who see him daily on his beat are genuine. Part New York neighborhood portrait la American-theater staples Street Scene and Dead End, part hard knocks but optimistic little-guy's story a la Edward Dahlberg's novel Bottom Dogs (1929), Lin's juicy, dialogue-heavy sophomore effort is rich, flavorful, and humane.--Ray Olson -- Booklist (Starred Review)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Kaya Press (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885030452
• ISBN-13: 978-1885030450
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, February 11, 2008

By 

Donald Capone "Donald Capone" (Hastings on Hudson, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: This Is a Bust (Paperback)

I stumbled across This Is a Bust, by Ed Lin, in my local library by accident--because the cool, funky cover art grabbed my attention. The interior of the book also had a somewhat funky design. There are no first line paragraph indents; instead, everything is flush left with an extra return between each paragraph. This was all very appealing to me as a book designer (yes, I do judge a book by its cover). OK, enough on the design.

The novel also appealed to me as a writer. The back cover text states "This Is a Bust explores the unexotic and very real complexities of New York City's Chinatown, circa 1976, through the eyes of a Chinese American cop. 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."

This is a good description, but it was the character of Robert Chow, the cop, who intrigued me more than the solution to the murder mystery itself. In fact, the mystery really isn't the focus of this book. The characterization of Chinatown as a whole, its culture (which was unknown to me), and all the individual characters who populate Lin's novel are the real story. There is Chow's former partner Vandyne, an African-American, who is on the fast track to making detective; the Midget, who hangs out in Columbus park and beats all opponents in every board game imaginable; Paul, a young, brilliant tough; Lonnie, a college student and bakery worker who has eyes for Chow; Barbara, an old love interest of Chow's who made it out of Chinatown, only to return; and Yip, an elderly man who may or may not have killed his wife.

All of this is set against the background of a 1976 Chinatown, an era before the internet, before cell phones, and before the U.S. opened up relations with communist China (but is putting out feelers). Policeman Chow wonders at one point why he fought against communism in Vietnam. Though only 25, he feels old, having seen both the big world (Vietnam), and the small world (Chinatown), and how it can wear a man down. He's lost, and alcoholic, and knows he is just a token in the police department, and will never be given the investigations he desires to become a detective.

Chow is drawn to the murder mystery, though, because he understands the Chinatown culture, more so than his friend Vandyne, who is leading the investigation. He wants to prove to himself and his boss that he is more than just a patrolman walking a beat, more than just a token face for photo ops. He's warned off the case by his boss, but it nags at him, and clues occasionally fall into his lap whether he wants them to or not. As Chow puts the pieces of the mystery together, he also sorts out his own personal life.

This Is a Bust is anything but a bust. It's first-rate. Check it out.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hardboiled chinatown, March 18, 2008

By 

Steven Huang "Steve Huang" (New York New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Is a Bust (Paperback)

Wonderful. Nails a place and time, but most importantly, brings the people of 1976 Chinatown to life. Nothing is simplistic in this novel - not the people, not the situations, not the issues of race and class.

Most of all, I liked the moody, non-heroic toughness of the main character, Robert Chow. He is unsentimental, and yet full of heart. True noir.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a Cool Read, October 28, 2009

By 

Benjamin Ha - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Is a Bust (Paperback)

What I really liked about this book is when you're reading it, you can really see Chinatown in the time period of the 70's. A lot of people have been to Chinatown, but aside from eating there, we usually know nothing about the people. After reading this, I got a really good sense of the community of Chinatown.

The main character, Robert Chow, is a policeman, but he's been assigned to Chinatown for the fact that he's Chinese. The police force sends him to do all the public events such as restaurant openings. He's the face of the police department in Chinatown with no real hope of advancing to the role of a detective so he feels stuck in this position. He hates what he does so he's a raging alcoholic.

Even though Chow was able to figure out the killer in a case that the NYPD dismissed, he's still more viable to the department as a friendly Asian face than as a detective.

The protagonist is an immensely interesting character - not your typical hero. He's not a likable person, but he draws you in nevertheless.

I highly recommend this book. It has a dark feel to it, but the author, Ed Lin, takes you to the underside of Chinatown beyond the gift shops and restaurants that you won't soon forget.