In The Sense of Wonder,PEN/Faulkner finalist Matthew Salesses (Disappear, Doppelgänger, Disappear; Craft in the Real World) spotlights three basketball players at different points of their careers--starting out, at the pinnacle, and over--along with a Korean American television producer who's dating the rookie.
Won Lee is a Princeton-educated, all-Ivy conference MVP point guard now with the New York Knicks. Perhaps his name was prescient: he's won enough to be the one and only Asian American in the NBA. He's playing with his idol "Powerball!" (né Paul Burton), who's Black--but then Powerball! gets hurt. While Powerball! is out, Won dominates for seven straight victories. Powerball!'s return might be great for the fans, not so for "the Wonderboy."
Watching Won and Powerball! from the stands is ESPN reporter Robert Sung, who was Powerball!'s high school teammate, destined for a Division I scholarship until a career-ending knee injury. Off the court, Sung introduces Won to Carrie Kang, a Korean American TV producer working to bring K-dramas to U.S. masses, and more Asian American screen representation overall.
Won's career hinges on an elusive contract his bigoted coach dangles but won't produce. Won and Powerball! get caught in the media's Asian/Black divides. Sung is never quite trustworthy about safeguarding what is on and off the record. Salesses moves, fakes and pivots his narrative with practiced, sly expertise, all while deftly exposing pervasive racism and sexism in two inequitable industries. And yet, he also manages to impart an easy, welcoming bluntness: "What Won made Asian Americans feel was mimetic wonder." Social ills notwithstanding, who can argue with that? --Terry Hong, BookDragon