Number One Chinese Restaurant - Lillian Li

Genre: Fiction

Spoiler Alert: No Spoilers

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis:

“The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go-to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations; it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades. When disaster strikes, this working family’s controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay.
Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father’s homespun establishment for a fancier one. Jimmy’s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny’s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father’s absence and a teenager’s silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their thirty-year friendship into something else, even as Nan’s son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble. And when Pat and Annie, caught in a mix of youthful lust and boredom, find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.”

My Thoughts:

Number One Chinese Restaurant is the story of a Chinese family and their staff. We follow multiple characters as they navigate life in and around The Duck House, owned by Jimmy Han and his family. Jimmy is desperate to leave his late-father’s restaurant and start his own, and he is willing to do just about anything to get there. Meanwhile, Nan and Ah-Jack, long time employees of The Duck House, are caught in their own troubles, feeling obligated to stay with Jimmy after The Duck House is destroyed, while trying to maintain their own lives. Outside of all of this we also follow along with Pat, Johnny, Annie, and even Jimmy & Johnny’s mother at times.

As interesting as this story was, I found it a little hard to keep up at times. We bounced from character to character, and while their stories all did intertwine, ultimately rooted in the demise of the family business, it did not feel very cohesive. As soon as I felt engaged with one character, I was suddenly being pulled away to the next.

While I found each of the characters stories compelling, I unfortunately did not find anyone likeable. I’m unsure if we were meant to sympathize with Jimmy, and frankly I couldn’t see how anyone would be able to. He was mean, and self-absorbed, and not once did he consider the consequences of his actions. Ah-Jack was selfish and needy, while Nan pined for a relationship that couldn’t be, and did far too much for someone so undeserving.  Ultimately there was not a single redeeming quality to be found amongst this cast of characters.

Had the storylines been more cohesive, I may have enjoyed this story a little more. However, it felt disjointed, the only connecting piece being The Duck House. In the end I felt like none of the stories had truly been resolved, and was left wondering.

Overall, my feelings on Number One Chinese Restaurant were and still are very up and down, however I do not regret picking up this book. I did enjoy Lillian Li’s writing style, and I would be interested to read more from her in the future.