Books Ed Lin Is Totally Awesome
posted by on February 27 at 14:24 PM
Ed Lin is now in my Top Five Readers of His Or Her Own Work. Last night, at Elliott Bay Book Company, to an audience of 40 to 50 people, he read from his newest book, This Is a Bust, and he nailed it.
Bust, which is about a Chinese-American police officer in New York’s Chinatown, is set in 1976. “Bruce Lee is dead,” Lin read, and Serpico had just cashed in a multimillion-dollar publishing check and moved to Europe. The first part of the reading, which took place in a few garbage-crusted alleys and a studio apartment with more litter than space for a human being, set the stage: It was not a good time to be a cop, to be a Chinese immigrant, or live in New York City.
The second portion, about a dim sum restaurant’s serving staff going on a hunger strike and picketing the restaurant, was more about what it meant to be a cop in Chinatown in the ’70s: The picketers held signs in English that read “Jade Palace Steals Our Tips,” but the signs in Chinese read: “Jade Palace Drinks Our Blood.” Lin is a strong reader, telling the story rather than staring at his book and mumbling. He even effectively put on distinct voices for each of his characters, something that most authors wouldn’t dream of doing.
After a hockey sequence (in which the main character informs a young street punk that “Sometimes it’s right to hit people,”) Lin took questions. As I predicted yesterday, a lot of the questions had to do with The Motel, the film version of Lin’s first novel, Waylaid. Lin was surprisingly dismissive. “This is where a book lives,” he said, gesturing to the reading room and the bookstore, “It dies when it hits the screen.”
Lin then told the crowd about Winston Groom, the author of Forrest Gump. He pointed out that the blockbuster film, according to the movie studio, still had yet to make a profit, and so Groom made no royalties off it. When the audience groaned in disbelief, Lin suggested that people illegally download films: “Rip those DVDs, people,” Lin said, “Keep on streaming those puppies!” Then he groaned and said he was committing career suicide right in front of us, and then it was time for him to go and sign books and talk about hockey with that one guy.
Winston Groom wasn't stupid enough to take net points, was he? I've never been within ten thousand miles of Hollywood, and even I know you don't take net points; you take gross points. Movies NEVER make money; they're not supposed to make money. If a money shows a net profit, accountants get fired.
I haven't read the book and I'm not familiar with the author, but that's one handsome looking book cover.
I just read his first novel (Waylaid) because I just found it in my apartment yesterday. Apparently someone had given it to my boyfriend, and he'd never read it and had kind of hidden it behind another layer of books on the bookshelf, because he's embarrassed to own any Asian-American literature because people might think he's getting in touch with his Asian Heritage and his Cultural Roots. Anyway it was surprisingly good, refreshingly free from the smarmy getting-in-touch-with-your-Asian-Heritage crap that seems almost like a requirement to get your book published if you're Asian, though the book still boasts plenty of racist New Jersey folk dropping C-bombs all over the place. Also Ed Lin is smoking fucking hot.
Damn, I wish I'd gone to see Lin last night. Your writeup almost had me convinced yesterday, but the idea of slogging (heh) into Seattle across the bridges had me heading home instead. Dammit.
His books (which I hadn't heard of until you brought them up) are fast-tracked into my reading pile now. Thanks, Paul.
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