The Family Chao

Written by Lan Samantha Chang

Narrated by Brian Nishii

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is
honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family’s secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last.

Before long, brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead—presumed murdered—and his sons find they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three
brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James. As the spotlight on the brothers tightens—and the family dog meets an
unexpected fate—Dagou, Ming, and James must reckon with the legacy of their father’s outsized appetites and their own future survival.

Brimming with heartbreak, comedy, and suspense, The Family Chao offers a kaleidoscopic, highly entertaining portrait of a Chinese American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of a seemingly pleasant small town.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705057339

Lan Samantha Chang

Lan Samantha Chang is the author of the award-winning books Hunger and Inheritance, and the novel All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. Her work has been translated into nine languages and has been chosen twice for The Best American Short Stories. A recent Berlin Prize winner, she has received creative writing fellowships from Stanford University, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Samantha lives in Iowa City, where she is director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Reviews for The Family Chao

[theloislevel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book when i read it, but sadly, it has not stayed with me.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

read this as a shared read in TIOLI, "family". I have had this on my phone it was a free audiofile Sync program. This one explores the experience of American Chinese, adopted Chinese, and Chinese illegal immigrant. Very interesting to look at these different perspectives. I fault this book for sexual detail and not sure that I would recommend this as a young adult book. I gave it 3 stars. Besides a book about family/siblings, it is also a mystery.

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an immigrant story with several twists. I loved the quirkiness of the characters, the drama and food of the restaurant and the sisterhood where Winnie finds refuge.

[srms.reads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lan Samantha Chang’s The Family Chao revolves around a Chinese American immigrant family settled in Haven, Wisconsin who own and operate Fine Chao , a Chinese restaurant serving the local community for thirty five years.

Leo Chao , the patriarch, is a domineering figure who is generally disliked and is just barely tolerated by his family and the community . Winnie, his wife , left him after their youngest son left for college and having forsaken all worldly possessions is now a Buddhist nun in living in the Spiritual House within their community . Her sons remain in close contact with her and love her dearly . Of the three sons William (Dagou) , Ming, and James –“ the handsome son, the accomplished son, and the good son”, Dagou, once an aspiring musician without much success, had returned to help his father when their mother had fallen ill six year ago and now works with his father as a cook in the family restaurant and has a complicated love life. He is target of constant bullying and berating from his father, tensions compounding when he demands to be made partner in the family business as promised previously. Ming, the middle child and most successful of Leo’s sons chooses to distance himself as far as possible from his father and the community in which he has always felt like an outsider. Academically accomplished, he pursues a life of affluence in Manhattan. Growing up Chinese American in a predominantly white community, his childhood experiences coupled with his father’s abrasiveness leave him struggling with feelings of self-loathing and a general feeling of disconnect from his community. James, the youngest is a kind hearted and sensitive premed student. He looks up to his brothers and is fiercely loyal. The brothers join their father and their family dog Alf during Christmas right before the family is to host the annual Christmas dinner at their restaurant. What follows is a tense and confrontational family reunion with pent up resentments, secrets and deception bubbling to the surface of what was already a fractured, complicated and dysfunctional family dynamic.

Leo Chao dies after being locked in the freezer in his restaurant and his body is discovered the day after the party. The presumed murder puts the restaurant and family members in the spotlight. Subject to hushed speculations, open suspicion and public scrutiny, the family must answer questions raised not only among themselves but by their own community of friends and fellow immigrants and in the eyes of law. Complicating matters further is a missing bag of money, the life savings of a dead man whose family is searching for it and that was mistakenly picked up by James who tried to administer CPR to save this man’s life when he collapsed at Union Station.

The story combines family drama, mystery and dark humor and explores themes of ambition, family, loyalty, mental health, spirituality , cultural identity, racial stereotyping and immigrant assimilation. The first half of the book is slower in pace, building up to the death of Leo Chao. The author’s sensitive yet insightful portrayal of second generation immigrant experiences and the struggles associated with conflicting expectations and cross-cultural identity is commendable. The second half is relatively fast paced describing the subsequent trial and unraveling of the mystery .

The novel is described as a retelling of a Russian classic, but I would say that on its very own , The Family Chao is a very well structured , engaging and enjoyable literary mystery. Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been avoiding writing this review because I am still not sure what I think of the book. On the one hand, I can appreciate the writing and I found some of the subject matter to be quite interesting, especially the depiction of the variety of experiences that Chinese immigrants to America have. On the other hand, the general plot line of dysfunctional and contentious family dynamics is one that I normally avoid like the plague, and nothing about this changed my mind in that regard.

The Chao family have lived in a small Wisconsin town for 35 years, since the father and mother emigrated separately from China as young adults. They own a successful Chinese restaurant in the town, and have raised three sons. As the book opens, the parents have separated and the sons are grappling with their own places in the family and the world, hindered by their overbearing father's harsh treatment. (These are the bits that I absolutely loathe.) Everything builds to a climactic Christmas Eve dinner at the restaurant, where an unexpected tragedy alters the trajectory of all of their lives.

The second part of the book is set inside and outside of the courtroom where one of the family members is on trial. That mitigates but doesn't entirely erase the family's inability to connect with each other, and I found myself not really caring at all about the outcome. The final part deals with the aftermath of the verdict with some half-hearted attempts to wrap up each character's story. In the end for me, my antipathy is less about some characters being unlikable and more that I generally didn't find any of the characters compelling enough to make me care about what would happen to them.

I probably should not have read this book, knowing that it was not going to feature a narrative that I find appealing, so I won't try to pass judgment on whether anyone should or shouldn't read it. I did find the discussions of the immigrant experience to be really interesting, especially as Chang presents different viewpoints — the original immigrant generation who had to make a life for themselves in a new country far from home; their ABC (American-Born Chinese) children, whose experiences range from trying to maintain the old ways to complete assimilation to having a foot in both worlds and feeling at home in neither; to the young woman who was adopted from China by a white couple as a baby and grows up to feel completely disconnected from her native culture and desperate to try to re-join it in some way.

The alumni book club that chose this as its January selection is reading much more slowly and won't even finish the reading schedule until the end of the month. Perhaps when the discussion heats up in that venue I'll get some new insights to the book that will make me appreciate it more. Until then, it's a general 'meh' from me.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We meet the 3 Chao sons shortly before the deaths of their mother and father, the latter likely murder. Healthy, intelligent children and a successful business has not mellowed this patriarch who seems determined to drive away the chef son who has returned to the small Wisconsin town after not making it in New York. Good pacing and characterizations, but there isn't really anyone you'd be eager to meet.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

fiction- family drama, secrets, murder mystery, more drama, set around a Chinese restaurant in middle American village of Haven.

[anniekmd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a family drama about 3 Chinese American brothers in their 20s. They each have their issues, having grown up working in the family restaurant for their overbearing, insensitive father. The characters are not particularly likable & there is little joy to their relationships. The writing is good, and the author did a wonderful job in developing her themes, which include appetite (for food, sex and money), loyalty/disloyalty, and belonging/not belonging. But its slow-paced and the story wasn’t enjoyable. Thank you to the author and publisher for the complimentary copy of this book; my review is an honest one.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leo and Winnie Chao, immigrants from China, came to the small, midwestern city of Haven, Wisconsin and opened a Chinese restaurant. Of their three sons, Dagou, the oldest, came back home to run the restaurant only to have his father renege on his promise to give him the restaurant. Ming became a success elsewhere and stays away as much as he can and the youngest, James, dutifully fulfilled his parents' wishes and is in medical school. When they all converge the old faultlines fracture and when the Chao patriarch is found dead, the suspicion falls on one son.

Lan Samantha Chang bases this on The Brothers Karamazov and it's hugely fun to see where she has chosen to follow that novel and where she diverges. But there's no need to have read, or even be familiar with the Dostoevsky; this novel is wild and fun and full of its own heart. Chang has taken the framework to create her own memorable group of siblings. I've been a fan of Chang's work since I read her previous novel, All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost and this new book shows the same beautiful writing, while being utterly different.