Kathy Wang's poignant, charming third novel, The Satisfaction Café, follows the unpredictable decades of a Taiwan immigrant's California life. In 1975, 25-year-old Joan Liang is two years into her Stanford master's program. "For her entire life thus far, Joan [has] been a very good girl," but six weeks into her marriage, she (non-fatally) stabs her husband--because he deserves it.
Single again, she meets 51-year-old Bill--white, wealthy, thrice-divorced, with twins just a year younger than Joan. Lawyers and financial advisers get involved, but Joan and Bill's contented (enough) union lasts, producing two more children, Jamie by birth, Lee by adoption (she's Bill's sister's daughter). When Bill dies, his eldest son, Theo, sets the family's iconic mansion ablaze after learning he didn't inherit it. Rather than rebuilding, Joan eventually opens the Satisfaction Café. Inspired by a chance encounter with a professional Tokyo hostess, her "special" café is "a place one visited for conversation." And the customers come.
Wang (Family Trust) places Joan center stage, but she's equally attentive to the supporting cast, creating diverse, memorably quirky characters: Joan's acerbic mother; Jamie and his problematic "desire to please"; reliable lawyer Nelson; Jamie's colleague Ellison, who becomes Joan's employee. Wang writes with an easiness, never wallowing despite a lingering loneliness. She slyly addresses issues of racism and inequity with sharp wit: Jamie warns Joan to "behave" and not "do that thing you sometimes do... when you answer questions bluntly and pretend you don't know it's rude because English isn't your first language." For lucky readers, Wang expertly, gratifyingly nurtures that incisive directness throughout. --Terry Hong