The Chinese Groove: A Novel

Written by Kathryn Ma

Narrated by James Chen

Anne Tyler meets Jade Chang in this buoyant, good-hearted, and sharply written novel about a blithely optimistic immigrant with big dreams, dire prospects, and a fractured extended family in need of his help—even if they don't know it yet

Eighteen-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province and living in the shadow of his widowed father’s grief, dreams of bigger things. Buoyed by an exuberant heart and his cousin Deng’s tall tales about the United States, Shelley heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome by the awesome powers of the “Chinese groove,” a belief in the unspoken bonds between countrymen that transcend time and borders.

Upon arrival, Shelley is dismayed to find that his “rich uncle” is in fact his unemployed second cousin once removed and that the grand guest room he’d envisioned is but a scratchy sofa. The indefinite stay he’d planned for? That has a firm two-week expiration date. Even worse, the loving family he hoped would embrace him is in shambles, shattered by a senseless tragedy that has cleaved the family in two. They want nothing to do with this youthful bounder who’s barged into their lives. Ever the optimist, Shelley concocts a plan to resuscitate his American dream by insinuating himself into the family. And, who knows, maybe he’ll even manage to bring them back together in the process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9780593683682

Kathryn Ma

Kathryn Ma is the author of the story collection All That Work and Still No Boys, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. The book was named a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Discoveries Book. She is also the recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction.

Reviews for The Chinese Groove

[tytania-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun little story. Shelley is a young man who comes to San Francisco from China with dreams of success. Everything goes rather poorly from the start. He had been told his uncle, who will be hosting him, owns a big fabulous department store; but the truth is the family used to own a little corner grocery, but no longer. Furthermore, his uncle and aunt stick him in a tiny spare room and kick him out after two weeks. Hunger and homelessness threaten. But Shelley is positively buoyant through it all. He makes himself useful to his uncle's elderly father and endears himself to the little boy of a family friend. He endures heartbreak and trickery. And then it's all tied up in a nice bundle.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kathryn Ma gives us a complex and well-hewn main character in her new novel, The Chinese Groove which explores the classic theme of the American Dream. Xue Li — renamed Shelley by his British English teacher — lives a depressing life in China taking care of his alcoholic father who never recovered after the death of Shelley’s mother. At 18, he heads for America with dreams of a rich and rewarding future awaiting him with his “wealthy” uncle, but finds the reality a drastic departure from what he expected. The Chinese Groove manages to be both funny and emotional as Ma manages the line between satire and silliness pretty well, and really delves into what it means to be a family.