Dakota Johnson’s Teatime Pictures December Book Club Pick
One of NPR’s “Books We Love” 2024
“One of the sharpest, most insightful critiques of America I’ve encountered in years. And it’s also often hilarious.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A funny and perceptive exploration of defying societal expectations…timeless.”
—Washington Post
“A must-read for basically anyone who’s alive.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Sharp, thoughtful, at times heartbreaking, and incredibly relatable.”
—Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“For anyone who’s ever faced demanding parents, dealt with in-laws, had a vacation go awry, or questioned how to reconcile their own flaws with those of their most beloved.”
—Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot
From the acclaimed author of Chemistry, comes a witty and insightful novel about a marriage seen through the lens of two family vacations.
Keru and Nate, college sweethearts, marry despite the vast differences in their families: Keru’s strict, Chinese immigrant parents demand perfection—her father, for instance, believes that using a dishwasher is admitting defeat—while Nate’s rural, working-class family doubts his intellectual ambitions and resents his “foreign” wife.
Years into their marriage, the couple invites their families to join them on vacation. In a Cape Cod beach house and a luxurious Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their massive sheepdog try to navigate family visits and unexpected guests, while facing the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family don’t get along? What does it take to make a family? And when everything starts to fall apart, how do you bring everyone back together?
With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular” (People) voice and a “hilarious deadpan reminiscent of Gish Jen and Nora Ephron” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Weike Wang presents a family portrait that is equal parts humorous, sharp, and tender.
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