Days of Distraction: A Novel

Written by Alexandra Chang

Narrated by Greta Jung

Days of Distraction has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9780062951823

Alexandra Chang

Alexandra Chang is the author of Days of Distraction. She is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in Ventura County. 

Reviews for Days of Distraction

[pedro ramírez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a beautiful book! Loved the narration, loved the writing! For fans of Weike Wang, Jenny Offill, Jenny Zhang, Maggie Nelson, and Cathy Park Hong — I totally recommend!

[Abby · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story that captures what Chinese immigrants, young Chinese-Americans, & East Asians face in America today. I really enjoyed Alexandra's story, historical events about White-East Asian & White-Southeast Asian relationships interspersed throughout this story, and the struggles interracial couples face with internalized racism.

[daumari · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This feels like thinly fictionalized memoir (especially as the author is married, has a dog and a cat, and lives in Ithaca). A lot of musings on what to do in your mid-twenties, when working at a job that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and when you might be the trailing partner for someone going elsewhere for grad school, etc. A thoughtful book.

[rickgeissal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a marvelous 1st novel - excellent writing , creative and interesting plot and characters. It is set up around the questions of how white-male/Asian-(Chinese in this case)female relationships. Well done.

[froxgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This lovely novel/memoir is part of a new trend where authors feature themselves and real people in their writing but call it a novel, and this one works beautifully. Alexandra Chang writes for a magazine in San Francisco, and her long time boyfriend has just accepted a post doc position at Cornell in Ithaca, NY, far from their Davis, CA hometown and far from his first choice. Everything that follows tests the survival of their relationship, including an intense and descriptive cross country drive. Alexandra, who is Chinese-American, is seemingly suddenly aware of her ethnic status in relation to her upbringing amongst whites, and to the pairings of Asian women/white men that seem to be so common. She also threads the story of Yamei Kin, one of the first Chinese doctors licensed in America, into the narrative. Alexandra’s father has lived in China on and off throughout her life, and in the final chapters, she leaves Ithaca to visit him there, not knowing if she'll return. The entire book is told from her point of view and consists primarily of her musings about her work, family, and boyfriend, and it's a delightfully poignant journey, filled with discoveries and decisions. This reader felt very close to her by the end of the book.

Quotes: "When in all aspects of life the odds are entirely against you, it can be worth paying for even a tiny increase in hope."

"There are distances neither of us wants to traverse, as though going from where one stands to where the other stands is to break from as essential part of oneself. And if both of us remain as firm in our positions, then what?"

"Not all of us are lucky enough to get to choose how the world defines us."

“It felt nice to be on the way, in spite of not knowing exactly how far I had come nor how far I had left to go.”

[narshkite · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Days of Distraction just made me feel sort of wah-wah, but I think I would have loved it if I had read it when I was younger. Roxane Gay wrote a review of another book yesterday, and all she said was "I am so glad I am out of my 20's" and that is how I feel about this one. The things this woman worries about -- life will teach her not to sweat the small stuff.

The writing is actually quite accomplished but there is zero plot. I don't always mind that, I love a good character study, but I mind it here. I think I mind because there is only one developed character and she is of absolutely no interest to me - surly, self-involved and bland are not compelling personality traits. This is essentially memoir but called fiction so Chang could change the content of conversations to suit her narrative. This is the "asking for a friend" version of a novel. Sometimes that works (Rachel Cusk is a good example), but here I just find myself thinking its lazy. The only real question is whether it is lazy fiction or lazy memoir.

The author's/main character's partner is a grad student in biochem at Cornell and the other day I got an invite to a Zoom Happy Hour with some post-docs in Ithaca in the same hour I had been reading about her attending a grad student cocktail party in Ithaca (insert Twilight Zone music) where she was (per usual) surly, self-involved and bland when meeting the students and their partners, many of whom made an honest effort to make her feel welcome. My first thought on receiving my invite was OMG I would hate to run into her at in a social setting. Nothing worse than the detached nose-holding type at a party! You know the one, she curls in her upper lip under and then compresses er lips so it looks like she smells something bad. But she in not just an unpleasant snob, she is also boring, humorless, neurotic, whiny (SO WHINY) and a narcissist with daddy issues.

My dislike for Alexandra (that is her name in the book as well as in real life) made me feel a bit guilty. Her disdain for everyone who is not her or a family member is generally hinged on their letting loose with perceived microaggressions. IMHO (as a white Jewish woman) most of those alleged microaggression (not all - there were some legitimate gripes) were so much created drama. I respect the seriousness of microaggressions. I understand they do more to break down people than overt and even violent incidents of racism because of the constancy and subtlety. But... nearly every time Alexandra points out a microaggression I just want to smack her and tell her she is making something out of nothing. There is a scene where she is pissed because her BF sings Ebony and Ivory to their dog and cat because one is black and one is white. Alexandra is miffed because she says that his making this about race (?!?!?) makes her feel threatened. I don't think the writer is trying to be funny. If she is its the only time it happens. In another scene she looks at the page for a department at Cornell and gets furious because there is only one person of color on the faculty. She has a cow when a faculty member from that department encourages her to consider an instructor role in the group because her there is no one in the department with tech journalism experience. Alexandra assumes the prof's sole interest was to make a diversity hire. So she cuts down an employer because there is an under-representation of people of color, and and then she assails a prof who encourages here to apply as an asshole for looking to hire a qualified woman of color. Let me tell you, there are not thousands of non-caucasian people walking the streets of Ithaca let alone POC qualified to teach in the journalism program. In upstate New York an employer needs to make an effort to hire a diverse workforce. Being encouraged to apply for a position for which you are wholly qualified is not a microaggression. She characterizes it thus because the woman says it must be challenging for an Asian woman to come to Ithaca after living in an area with a large Chinese population for most of her life. Again, that is not a microaggression, that is simple observation and interest. Anyway, I am ranting. My point is I am glad to see writers sharing the experience of being a victim of assumption, of being identified as being a certain person, having certain experiences or feelings, because of race. That is limiting and absurd and racist (often well meaning racist, but still racist and still reinforcing the white and other approach to what it means to be an American.) So kudos for advancing that discussion, and for writing well, but not much else.