#steph cha

It's about the aftermath of a shooting. During the Rodney King riots, a poor Black teenaged girl is shot and killed after she beats up a shopkeeper who'd insulted her. In the novel, a writer writes a book about her called Farewell Waltz and harps on how yes she was from the ghetto but she could play classical piano and she loved Chopin's Farewell Waltz and oooooh what if she'd gone to Julliard and been the next Mozart? Her brother hates the book and can't figure out why. He knows that his sister was not the next Mozart. She played piano well but not as well as the Chinese kids in their school whose parents made them practice for hours every day.

The reader is meant to understand that the book is hateful because it says "She didn't deserve to get killed because she played classical piano like Mozart," and implies "poor Black girls from the ghetto who aren't Mozarts do deserve to get killed," so it was kind of saying that she did deserve to get killed, so the brother hates it.

But the other thing the book-within-a-book Farewell Waltz was doing was had nothing to do with the brother or anyone who actually knew the girl. The author probably knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this fictionalized version of the girl who played music soooooo well. He was targeting ignorant white people who might not think they had anything against poor Black kids but quietly thought of them as trash and didn't feel bad about them dying. He was saying, "Look, this Black girl was good at an art that you care about and could have been the next Mozart, even though you'd never know it by her hairstyle, her clothes, her accent, or her address." The reader could then think, "Hm. Then maybe any one of these kids whom I think of as trashy could be the next Mozart or next Pasteur and I'd never know it to look at them. I guess we have to protect all of them just in case." And then after a few years of thinking like that, the ignorant white reader gets to "Wait, we don't protect all of them because one of them might be a secret Mozart. We protect all of them because they're all people and not getting shot to death is well below the bare minimum that all people deserve." And then a few years after that, the reader can look back and think "Wow, I used to be an asshole."

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024

In this fictionalized retelling of the events that led to the 1992 LA riots, Cha beautifully melds the stories of two families. This intergenerational tale explores themes of forgiveness, racism, identity and more. Told through the eyes of multiple generations, readers will see the complexities of accepting and understanding family history.

Modena Buk Festival 2021, domenica Bocci è Dante in scena. Dal 19/20 kermesse in presenza

food+drink from YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY by Steph Cha

(these are all Kindle highlights. please let me know in the comments if you have other mentions of food and/ or drink in this book.)

...taking small but steady sips from her screwdriver.

“I got us some Yamazaki Single Malt.”

...Aunt Sheila’s celebratory red velvet cupcakes.

Shawn remembered the vile taste of stale prison meat, discolored and chewy and wet smelling. For years, food had brought him no pleasure, only sustenance. Powdered potatoes and canned beans. Endless slices of plain white bread turning to mush in his tired mouth.

...Shawn knew he was thinking about a cheeseburger with bacon and French fries.

The table sagged with mac and cheese and fresh buttermilk biscuits, potato salad and baked beans. There was a whole tray of pork ribs glistening with barbecue sauce, another of roast chicken. A large Domino’s pizza, too, with pepperoni, jalapeño, and pineapple.

...the adults shared a bottle of champagne in the living room.

...stack fresh chocolate chip cookies on his plate and carve out a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The house smelled like miyeok...

...Yvonne transferred the miyeok-guk, eundaegu-jolim, banchan, and rice to the table.

Grace loved eundaegu-jolim...

...bowl of honeydew, sliced into pale green wedges.

...treating them to fried chicken.

They ordered fried chicken livers, an Obama Special, and a Herb’s Special with gravy and onions. Shawn had been hungry, and he was glad enough to keep his mouth full of chicken and waffles...

“We have leftover kimchi jjigae, right?”

I’ll pick up some kimbap.

...Yvonne was going to make a big batch of kkakdugi ...

...pulling out containers of rice and banchan and leftover kimchi jjigae.

“Good old KTown scotch,” 

...corn dogs at the mall...

There’s beers in there. 

Aunt Sheila said to go get milk. 

...still got their butter and eggs.    

...ran the all-you-can-eat sushi joint...

...the best Halloween candy...

...drinking his disgusting kombucha. 

...she ventured out for a glass of water...

Jazz set coffee down in front of him. 

I got you a rice bowl with like teriyaki tofu. 

...a side plate of kimchi, and a can of Diet Coke.

“This rice is trash. I thought the seitan was bad. Fucking vegans can’t even get rice and tofu right.”

...and given her hot tea...

Darryl shuffled over and sat obediently while he got fries and drinks...

...he took them out for chicken nuggets and chocolate milkshakes.

...a tray crammed with naengmyeon, ddukbokki, kimbap.

He was prepping her lunch—tuna sandwiches cut into tiny triangles...

Ordered pizza, had another drink.

...plastic-wrapped packages of ddukbokki, soondae, and kimbap, with a sweet potato cake...

He unpacked the takeout—orange chicken and beef with broccoli, fried rice and chow mein...

Miriam made dinner: spaghetti with tomato sauce...

“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

Shawn had coffee waiting for her ...

...a cream soda Dum Dum when they left.

...chomping down a burrito.

She got green tea soft serve in a waffle cone.

...sipping his tea.

...offering her water and coffee and cookies...

Korean-American novelist wins LA Times book prize — The Korea Times

Read more at The Korea Times

— by Yi Whan-woo: A Korean-American writer has won a book prize from the Los Angeles Times with her latest novel inspired by the racial tension between Korean immigrants and African-American communities during the 1992 LA riots…

Image courtesy of Faber & Faber