Slant: A Novel
A wonderful debut novel, not your typical coming out story. It has true depth, grace, and vividly drawn characters that entice the reader into this beautifully crafted story. The emotions and concerns are genuine. Timothy Wang tells a fascinating yarn with an unrivaled voice. --Alan Chin, author ofButterfly's ChildandIsland SongDebut novelist Timothy Wang creates a fascinating character study in James, a recently out, virginal MIT student. Slant addresses alienation by race and sexuality in a funny, hip manner. James follows dating tips fromCosmomagazine and remains very in tune and astute to what guys want. He's a virgin at the outset of the novel and similar to other linear-minded MIT students, James makes a formula and collects empirical data.... [Wang] writes amusing descriptions of the gay yuppies in the South End. He also tackles working-class Dorchester with aplomb. Wang gets extra points for developing the location in which he sets the story.... Wang makes astute observations on the gay scene- its competitiveness, its codes, those that excel within its walls and those that struggle to fit in. James is that guy. He's obsessed with his Asian-ness compared with other guys. He doesn't like his eyes. He wants to look more American. He visits a plastic surgeon and puts down money from eye surgery and a rhinoplasty. Nearly everyone wants to be loved and to integrate into our own microcosm. Many of us never stop trying to figure out how to do it.Slantis a quick, witty novel about love, trust and developing a sense of self. --Edge BostonWang tackles the issues that Asians and Asian Americans experience growing up. These issues are obvious and honest. We've all been there, the confusion of growing up different from what society mainly consist of, the self-loathe of our culture because we were watching shows that didn't have culture, things that the majority population can't seem to understand. --8Asians.com