Leland Cheuk

“Few literary heroes are more ubiquitous and enduring to multiple generations of Asians around the world than Monkey of the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng’en.

Considered one of the Four Classic Novels of Chinese literature, the sprawling, picaresque fable has been adapted into countless films, TV shows, stage plays and children’s books in Asia. Monkey King: Journey to the West, a new translation from Penguin Classics, serves as a solid primer for Western neophytes.”

Read the rest of the review at the San Francisco Chronicle.

“One of the epigraphs in Simon Han’s debut novel Nights When Nothing Happened is a line from “Epistle,” a Li-Young Lee poem: “Before it all gets wiped away, let me say, there is wisdom in the slender hour which arrives between two shadows.” Nights When Nothing Happened is very much about the private, shadowy parts of ordinary lives, but Han’s evocative writing is anything but ordinary.”

Read the rest over at NPR.

“From “The Great Gatsby” to “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” novels about social climbing and high society never seem to go out of style. Edith Wharton’s “The House of Mirth” is a classic of this prolific category, and Susie Yang’s debut novel, “White Ivy,” so echoes Wharton’s best-known book that even the protagonist’s name, Ivy Lin, sounds like Lily Bart.”

Read the rest over at The Washington Post.