Readers see themselves and their society through the eyes of three visiting Chinese graduate students who are perplexed by the difference between Tide, Cheer, and Biz; Monday Night Football; Dallas; and other American cultural phenomena. A first novel.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This funny, poignant first novel about cross-cultural mores and love (requited and not) introduces Whisnant as a sort of Ford Madox Ford of the MTV generation. An astute observer of American pop culture, he is appealingly honest in recording the ways that people inadvertently hurt each other. In Cleveland in 1980 narrator Dexter Mitchell, an actor turned theater techie, becomes romantically involved with Suzanne, an uncanny but indecisive young woman, as he plays half-willing big brother to his neighbors, a trio of exchange students from the People's Republic of China. When Mitchell's brief fling with Suzanne goes awry and an earlier suitor of hers becomes threatening, the novel takes a dark, potentially tragic turn. With deftly handled irony, Whisnant keeps his plot from slipping into the bathetic. This promising debut's major flaw is in the interpolation of a transcript of a documentary film about the Chinese students, a structural device that is too gimmicky for the emotional complexities of the material.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- The time is 1980. The place is Cleveland. The characters include Dexter, an erstwhile actor; Suzanne, a not-so-gay divorcee; Zap, her quondam lover and a borderline psychopath; Mr. Little, an African-American school teacher; his two less-than-appealing children; and three Communist Chinese students in the United States for the year studying systems. The story is told by Dexter, and is interspersed with dialogue and descriptions from a "documentary" produced by a film student and his beautiful, black assistant. Dexter is very taken with the three Chinese to whom he has become somewhat of a interpreter of American culture. Wa, Tzu, and Chen are beguilingly innocent and yet frighteningly perceptive in their views of pre-Reagan America. Much of their bemusement is very funny, but their observations become quite sobering as they become increasingly aware of the underlying hatred they perceive around them. The story line moves slowly, but does not drag, and the build up to the denouement is logical and inevitable. The characters are well drawn, and readers begin to care for and understand all of them. Many of the allusions to events of the period might be unfamiliar to today's YAs, but the story is very solidly set in its time and can certainly be viewed as a historical novel as well as a commentary on life in the not so distant past.
- Susan H. Woodcock, Potomac Library, Woodbridge, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Susan H. Woodcock, Potomac Library, Woodbridge, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenges Americans to see other's perception of us!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Watching TV with the Red Chinese: A Novel (Hardcover)
Mr. Whisnant takes us to a level of self awareness that we may not care to see in ourselves. Who are we as Americans? Can any of us pinpoint what makes us an American? Whisnant uses the first person, third party perspective to try and answer such questions. The structure of the story is clever, Mr. Whisnant uses the "filming" of the Chinese men to tie in various segments of his book. A great way to visualize the characters. And I especially enjoyed the eroticism between the main character Dexter and his 'love' Suzanne. Too bad the "bathtub" scene couldn't have been more detailed. But perhaps that can be enhanced in another 'possible world'.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Too bad Luke isn't writing anymore,
By A Customer
This review is from: Watching Tv With the Red Chinese (Paperback)
I discovered this book serendipitously about five years ago. It's fantastic. Funny, wise and poignant in ways that most modern novels of the past two decades have completely missed. I kept waiting for another book...but I guess this one wasn't such a hit. Too bad. Luke Whisnant seemed to have real insight to the outsiders among us and a compassion that is all too rare in young novelists.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book is terrific!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Watching Tv With the Red Chinese (Paperback)
I have read other works of the author and greatly enjoyed his storytelling style. This novel lived up to my expectations from the earlier reads. Highly recommended!
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