Vacation rental with the in-laws 鈥� for many, it鈥檚 a setup for disaster. In Weike Wang鈥檚 鈥淩ental House,鈥� it鈥檚 certainly that. It鈥檚 also an opportunity for Wang, a wildly gifted writer, to explore the upside and downside of education, marriage and family. Add to the mix an interracial couple where one partner hails from an Appalachian background like that of and the other鈥檚 life was shaped by the policies of and you have all you need for a laugh-out-loud satire of American dysfunction.
The heroes are Nate and Keru, who meet sort-of-cute at a Halloween party their senior year at Yale. She鈥檚 in a leopard-print turtleneck, plaid jacket and shiny gold pants to represent 鈥渁 bad dress day.鈥� He鈥檚 got a fin strapped to his back to stand for 鈥済reat white,鈥� as in shark, not, Keru later realizes, his status as another well-to-do Caucasian male at an Ivy League school. Nate is anything but that. His background is hillbilly, minus the elegy, the first generation in his family to go to college. Keru is first-gen, too, having emigrated to this country as a child with her Chinese parents.
Both are whip smart. He studies fruit flies, she鈥檚 in consulting. Five years into their marriage, they invite each set of parents to spend a week at their Cape Cod beach house. By then, they鈥檝e become doting parents of a giant sheepdog, Mantou, whose name means 鈥渟teamed bun鈥� in Chinese. As their parents arrive in staggered shifts, Wang gleefully pokes fun at each family鈥檚 prejudices and quirks. 鈥淭o use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,鈥� Keru鈥檚 demanding father tells Nate sternly. But the light-hearted tone darkens when Keru, stressed out by her in-laws鈥� visit, has a meltdown.
In the second half of the book, the stakes are higher. It鈥檚 five years later, and Keru is making gobs more money than her tenured professor husband though it requires 80-hour weeks. Easygoing Nate has been diagnosed with anxiety and even Mantou is depressed.
This time, they rent a house in a luxury development in the Catskills, where Keru must harness her considerable problem-solving skills to steer their little ship of family through unexpected visits from nosy, obnoxious neighbors and Nate鈥檚 ne鈥檈r-do-well brother.
Though ostensibly a comedy of manners built around an opposites-attract couple, Wang鈥檚 novel, her third after 鈥淐hemistry鈥� and 鈥淛oan Is Okay,鈥� is a poignant, profound meditation on this divided country enlivened by her dry wit and deadpan style.
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AP book reviews:
Ann Levin, The Associated Press
