Troublemaker and Other Saints - Softcover

Chiu, Christina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425183432 ISBN 13: 9780425183434

Publisher: Berkley, 2002

Synopsis

Meet the Wongs, Shengs and Tsuis. Each of these families has its own troubles and secrets—and something the other two want. But the three clans—whose members include a matriarch who talks to dead relatives; her nymphomaniac granddaughter; an old man who reads only decades-old newspapers; and a street punk—share a past and face a common future. Told in a sequence of interwoven stories, Troublemaker “refracts classic old-vs.-new-world tensions through the prism of second-generation Chinese-American Gen-Xers.” (Time)

Nominated for the Stephen Crane First Fiction Award

About this title

From the Author:

Interview with the Author

Q> Where do you get your ideas?

For me, writing is an expression of something I feel passionately about. Often, I see or hear something that will move me enough to write about it. One day, for example, while waiting for my appointment at a doctor's office, I came across the Personals section at the back of a magazine. I noticed that several ads, usually by white men, targeted Asian Women. This seemed a little strange to me, and it spurred all kinds of questions. I could understand saying that you're interested in someone who likes sports or dining out is one thing. But Asian? Why? Who would write a thing like that? And, more importantly, who would answer an ad like that? These questions lead me to explore the particular characters and situations in the story "Beauty."

Q> Is Troublemaker and Other Saints autobiographical? Are you Laurel in "Nobody" or Georgianna in "Doctor"?

The characters in Troublemaker are all fictional. I thought of this question ahead of time, and this was one of the reasons why I created such a diverse cast of characters-some are old, some young; some are female, others male. This doesn't mean that certain aspects can't be true to me. For one, Laurel and I both love to read Shakespeare, and so I relate to her passion for it, but really, when I was Laurel's age, I never read anything unless I had to for school.

Q> Which "Saint" do you relate to most?

It's the troublemaker that I relate to most. No, I didn't grow up in Chinatown, and I never assaulted anyone with a beer can. Yet, there's a lot about Eric that I can relate to, like being labeled a troublemaker. Also, I can relate to his frustration and rage at feeling all the invisible boundaries that determine what I can or cannot do because of my race.

Q> In Troublemaker and Other Saints, characters that appear in one story tend to reappear in later stories. Did you intend this when you started writing?

Initially, no. I had the idea to write about these different characters and they'd be tied together thematically. But as I continued writing, characters I wrote about in earlier stories started reappearing in later ones. Characters like Laurel and Seymour came from two separate worlds, and yet, there they were together in "Thief.'

Q>Where are you from? Were you born in China?

I was born in Manhattan and raised in Westchester, a suburb of New York. I've been to China, but only for short trips. My parents, however, were both born in Shanghai. They met in Hong Kong where they married and came to the United States before I was born.

Q> What are you working on now?

I'm writing a novel based on one of the stories from Troublemaker and Other Saints.

About the Author:

Christina Chiu has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received numerous residencies from, among others, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the U Cross Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. One of the original founders of the Asian American Writers Workshop, she has received its Van Lier Fellowship. Chiu lives in New York, where she is working on her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0425183432
• ISBN 13: 9780425183434
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288