DISORIENTATION by Elaine Hsieh Chou is not only a laugh-out-loud-funny satire and heavy-handed criticism of ivory tower academia, but also a Taiwanese woman’s reckoning with her own identity as a light-skinned Asian woman and her personal complicity in the larger system of institutional racism.

This book reads like a rollercoaster ride–its setup feels like such a slow, predictable climb but as the introduced conflict feels like it's about to start resolving itself, the story instead explodes into sharp turns, frenzied plot developments, and unexpected character twists (read: this story is WILD).

Hsieh Chou’s characters are exaggeratedly unrealistic— but these caricatures of personalities that we recognize in our own lives (and in ourselves?) are a strength in such a satirical work, serving as direct criticisms of the ways that people engage in racial discourse, from the white supremacists to the radical left social crusaders to the “model-minorities” to the “yellow fever” stricken men.

The novel seems to suggest that we do not have to take the paths of these extreme personalities but that there’s instead a middle way to engage with our current social-political climate and to stand up to long-standing systems of racial oppression without committing our entire lives to taking down those systems. Perhaps this moderation is necessary but maybe it's permission for us to feel like we’re doing enough when we’re not. As a light-skinned, half-Taiwanese half-White woman, I worry that this is a privileged point of view that betrays our ability to engage in difficult conversations only to the degree that we desire: that is a privilege that most people of color do not have.

While I personally loved this book (I probably align pretty solidly with Hsieh Chou’s “perfect reader”), it feels like a small slice of experience within a much larger conversation. It’s a book that’s begging to be talked about – a great choice for a book club or just to discuss over coffee with a friend– and perhaps a book that *needs* to be talked about in order to identify both what it got right and what it failed to name. If you’ve read DISORIENTATION, I’d love to hear what you think!

DISORIENTATION is out on March 22; thank you to @penguinpress for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I do not feel that I am part of the target audience for this book. I believe this book was supposed to be a political satire. While I do enjoy all of the themes in this book, I personally struggled with my enjoyment of this book. The tone and pacing were what was the most off about this book to me. To me it just did not seem as if it had a stable pace and was going from fast to faster a lot. I did not really feel as if I came to get to know the characters very well either. Again, I think I'm just not in the target audience for this book. I didn't hate it, but I struggled a lot with this book too.

I would like to thank Penguin Press for providing me with an ARC.

A campus novel like no other! I was in love with this book from page one.

Ingrid Yang is a PhD student struggling to finish her dissertation when she accidently uncovers a scandal that will upend not only her life, but the lives of those around her. This book was a mix of satire, realistic coming-of-age scenarios and clever observations regarding race and fetishization. On top of that we get an ever-unfolding mystery with a truly spectacular ending.

The story is relevant yet unique and the writing was heartfelt and humorous. Not only did I love (or love to hate) every character, but also found them all completely unforgettable. I was hooked from the start and will be recommending this book far and wide.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the advanced reader copy!

Disorientation is about to take the world by storm. This satire was full of humor that took us on a journey alongside PhD candidate Ingrid Yang discovering a weird note that sends her on many interesting paths. There are constantly so many things happening in this book that the reader is constantly engaged. I loved the commentary on the firsthand experience of an Asian American woman in higher education because I am currently living through that myself (albeit without all of the twists and turns that Ingrid encounters). This book touches on so many of the issues of Asian Americans in our current society in a humorous way that doesn’t feel forced. I absolutely love Elaine Hsieh Chou’s writing style and I can’t wait to read more of her books in the future!

holy shit. i'm reeling as i write this review. hands down, this is one of the best books i have read in so long. i feel drained, enraged, inspired, and most of all, seen. this book did not hold back on anything and viciously analyzed, unpacked, and dissected all parts of what it means to be an asian american women -- wmaf relationships, fetishization, white people in east asian studies, internalized racism, emotional abuse, manipulation, yellowface, racial trauma, ethnic studies, white liberals, white feminism, the model minority myth -- i just feel so perceived. my favorite character by far was vivian. i aspire to be like her and she is so relatable. but i also equally grew to love ingrid, who had SUCH AMAZING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! i am so proud of her journey, which is too real for most of us asian americans who grow up isolated in white suburbs hating ourselves and wishing we were white. i'm so thankful for this book and it's honestly required reading for all asian americans. it's funny, it's satirical, it tells you horrible truths even if you don't want to hear them, it offers such amazing critique -- i will be sending this to all my friends. thank you so much, elaine hsieh chou, for writing this book.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is a book that I want to give a standing ovation to. I didn't know what a journey of self-discovery this book would take me on when I first started reading it, but it is so ridiculously good, so wildly clever, that I want to talk about it with everyone I know.

Ingrid Yang is in the 8th year of her doctoral dissertation about a Chinese American poet named Xiao-Wen Chou, halfheartedly researching a subject that she isn't particularly interested in but was persuaded to pursue by her advisor, when a bizarre note she finds in the archives leads her down a rabbit hole like she could never have imagined. I don't want to give away much more about the plot because taking the journey firsthand is what made this such a delightful and cathartic reading experience for me, but suffice it to say that I've never read a book quite like this before.

I consumed this 400+ page book in three sittings. It reads so smoothly, it's like having a kind of bizarre and slightly uncomfortable but absolutely fascinating story recounted to you by a good friend who's much cooler than you. Chou dissects Ingrid's experience as an East Asian woman with incredible finesse. There's a lot here that resonated with me - the desperation to fit in as one of very few Asians in a predominantly white community, the emotional distance that growing up immersed in American culture puts between children and their immigrant parents, the unsettling feeling of regarding every white guy to show interest in you with a little bit of suspicion.

This is a book that anyone who can't think of Breakfast at Tiffany's without seeing the horrifying face of Mickey Rooney as Yunioshi or who's ever been just a little miffed that a white woman named Pearl got a Nobel literature prize for writing about Chinese people 60 years before anyone from China did, will certainly appreciate. But it's also one that everyone should read.

This book was a nice, unexpected surprise. I wasn't sure if I would like it in the beginning, but it quickly became a page turner to me.

Disorientation follows a PhD student, Ingrid Yang, on her 8th and hopefully last year, in the East Asian department. Ingrid is obviously dreading the process of writing her dissertation on something she doesn't even remember wanting in the first place. Is she supposed to write about the renowned American Chinese poet Xiao-Wen Chou because she loved his work or because she is Asian herself?

At a loss on what to write, one day she finds a handwritten note on her research paper and believes that is her chance on getting a never before seen take on the late American Chinese artist. She goes on a wild chase to find who left her the note and how this person can help her finally finish her dissertation, but what she finds is beyond what she could hope for, it's both groundbreaking and terrifying.

This was supposed to be a satire, but I couldn't help to notice the similarities with the current white dominant and Asian hating country we live in. I think this is a true eye-opening book, and the author did a wonderful job making it both entertaining and relevant.

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

this is a very very interesting book that knows exactly what it wants to say but loses a lot of integral writing elements in the process
i loved the nuance that chou was able to bring to all the facets of the asian experience - fetishization, power imbalance, yellowface, the idea of the perpetual foreigner, etc. - and i really resonated with a lot of what she wrote about
every character has nuance to their opinions and i could so see myself meeting someone with these ideas in my everyday life
that being said, the writing and voice of this book was incredibly cartoonish and juvenile - i expected a more mature tone for SENIOR GRADUATE STUDENTS, but reading these events felt like i was sitting in a middle school lunchroom, much less a graduate school
it’s also just such a long book - at some points the book really dragged due to diction or syntax or both
the plot itself is also a bit outlandish especially the third act but it’s satire ya know what are you gonna do about it
there are some really wonderful moments in chou’s writing (the forum scene, the scene with her parents near the end, etc.) but it’s not enough to win me over completely

The stunning debut from Elaine Hsieh Chou, a wry and irreverent look at one woman’s coming of consciousness, after uncovering a massive coverup on the campus of her elite northeast university.

I simply loved the idea of this story. There are so many people who struggle with their identity in America and want to be defined by something other than Asian American, African American, Indian American...etc. I completely relate to that aspect. Definitely took some hot issues head-on and BRAVA!!! It's hard to tackle issues without sounding preachy or accusatory.

Ingrid is riddled with anxiety and self doubt. All her life as a Taiwanese American she’s wanted to fit in. Be ‘normal’. And in her mind that meant rejecting or making fun of her Asian heritage.

When she uncovers the truth about a Chinese American poet who is the focus of her doctorate and all the deeper implications , she questions everything.

Sooo many mediocre white men who get no comeuppance. I know it’s realistic but I hate it.

3.5 stars. this satire is full of humour and confusion, following a PhD candidate as she desperately tries to finish her thesis on a poet she doesn’t even want to write about. the university setting is realized with irony and frustration, as protagonist Ingrid navigates her own identity and goals through a series of bizarre and often hilarious episodes.

there’s a real tenderness to this belated coming-of-age book that kept me caring about Ingrid, even as she makes some truly questionable decisions. i loved how the plot keeps spiralling, as each (sometimes well-intentioned) mess leads to another. the prose was conversational, which mostly worked for me.

i’d recommend this to anyone who wants a story about discovering the flaws in academia, wants a protagonist who realizes their own power, or wants their contemporary books to come with biting satire and a bit of absurdity. fans of Mona Awad’s BUNNY should check this one out!

“None of this is new; most of it is predictable; is it still interesting? When something true is repeated too often, it risks sounding untrue.”

Ingrid is a graduate student researching late Chinese poet Xiao-Wen Chou. It’s not a subject she’s particularly passionate about, and she was pressured into researching him by the East Asian Studies department head of her university. However, things take a turn when she makes a strange discovery while studying one of Xiao-Wen Chou’s poems. The rest of the novel tells the amateur investigation she and her friend Elaine lead in order to unveil secrets surrounding Xiao-Wen Chou’s life and death, as well as the unforeseen repercussions of their discoveries.

Elaine Hsieh Chou’s writing style is direct, fluid, and tinged with humour. This makes for a light read, even if a lot of the subject matters aren’t so light: addiction, the dark side of academia, Orientalism, white supremacy, right-wing nationalism, fetishization, and more.

DISORIENTATION is the perfect read if you’re looking for something with elements of both literary fiction and mystery. It will keep you on your toes all the way through, each new chapter revealing a little bit more information as Ingrid and Elaine make their way through their investigation. Some of the dialogues and plotlines are a bit unrealistic, but honestly, that only contributes to the book’s charm.

In Disorientation, by Elaine Hsieh Chou, PhD candidate Ingrid Yang is halfheartedly at work on her dissertation when she stumbles across a weird note in the Xiao-Wen Chou archives. After this discovery, Ingrid pretty much stumbles into everything in this plot, meandering confusedly across campus and into self-discovery.

There's a lot to enjoy and to recognize in this novel, especially for comp lit readers and teachers. The description of Chinese-American poet Xiao-Wen Chou, with his accessible, marketable quotes on tea boxes, felt almost too realistic, and so did Ingrid's struggle to turn in some pages that would have some new scholarship to contribute, please her advisor, and not be so boring she'd fall asleep while writing it.  Meanwhile, the descriptions of loud white men (with quiet Asian wives) in the East Asian Studies department felt way too familiar. I really enjoyed the scenes satirizing the school, and I particularly enjoyed how the author skewers literally everyone on campus, with snark and cutting insight, while Ingrid herself remains fairly clueless.

But Disorientation is uneven in parts, and the book drags in a few places where an interesting moment becomes an interminable scene. Sometimes this novel is a goofy story of Ingrid's madcap adventures trying to get out of working on her dissertation, but at other times, it's a harsh and insightful look at academic life,  and at other times, it's a satire of stolen stories and faked experiences. I enjoyed each side, but by including so much at once, the novel as a whole feels disjointed.

Basically, I felt like I was reading two novels (maybe three?) at once.  There's a silly, over-the-top comedy of Ingrid's goofy adventures. Ingrid, while avoiding her advisor, claims basically every illness she can think up. It's a buddy comedy where Ingrid and her best friend, Eunice, run insane investigations wearing goofy costumes and giving goofy spy signals. Our clueless heroine Ingrid is constantly right on the scene for key information to fall into her lap. It's fun, more like a pantomime than a novel.

But in the midst of the silliness, there are some dead-on insights and some fun snark. There's a clever commentary about who owns an experience, whether that's claiming to have written Chinese poetry, claiming to have written a website denouncing a fake author, claiming to speak a foreign language, claiming a relationship, claiming an identity, or just claiming the experiences of being alive. The book questions performed identity, too, like when a western character ostentatiously collects Chinese pottery to display his cultural expertise (and then trashes it when that no longer suits his needs). And then there's a look at who gets a second act screaming about free speech or who gets a contract for a book about being a Japanese translator who can't speak Japanese. 

There's also snarky commentary about academic life, department rivalries, and publishing pressure. Throughout the story, academic characters seem to ask: sure, insightful writing is great, but can you turn it into money, tenure, healthcare? And if you can, does that mean a bit of networking and sucking up to the right people, or  repackaging and rebranding, or... what? Anyone who's taught at a university, or tried to turn scholarship into money will recognize and enjoy this part.

Disorientation is an engaging but sometimes uneven book, with a lot to like in both the screwball comedy scenes and the clever satire scenes, but a disjointed feeling from both aspects blended in one novel.

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is the Asian-American novel that we need right now, and I can't wait until it's published in 2022 so that I can discuss it with other readers. This book is witty and intelligent. I can only compare it to 2021's The Other Black Girl and how that was a send-up of the publishing industry. This book is a send-up of academia, of getting a PhD, writing a dissertation, and competing for tenure-track positions. Who hasn't struggled to come up with a thesis at midnight in the college library? I can tell the author has been through it all, and she's ready to spill the tea.

The story revolves around PhD student Ingrid Yang, who has been struggling to write papers and be "competitive" in academia for years. She's supposed to be working on her dissertation. The trouble is, she has zero interest in the topic and didn't pick it in the first place! The only reason she's writing about Xiao-Wen Chou, the father of Chinese-American poetry, is that it was deemed most "marketable" and most likely to lead to future job prospects by her academic advisor. However, one day, she stumbles across a mysterious note while combing through her college's archives. Could this be the key she needs to writing a successful dissertation?

Here is a fun excerpt from Chapter 1:

"No, Ingrid Yang was not doing well.
She was twenty-nine years old and in mounting debt from her undergraduate degree. Four years ago, she had passed her comprehensive exams and started her dissertation. This year, the eighth and final year of her PhD, her funding would run out—an unhappy situation in any circumstance, but compounded by the fact that her student loan deferral was expiring. Somehow, in spite of all this financial doom and gloom, this was also the year she was meant to produce two hundred fifty pages on Xiao-Wen Chou. And not just any two hundred fifty pages—they had to be shockingly original and convincing! Enough to pass muster with her exacting advisor and an even more exacting dissertation committee. Enough to secure her the prestigious postdoc fellowship created in Xiao-Wen Chou’s name.
But after hundreds of hair-pulling hours spent at the archive, all she had accomplished was fifty pages of scrambled notes on Chou's use of enjambment."

Overall, Disorientation is a book for academics and fans of academia that is an absolutely pleasure to read. From the first few pages, I could tell that I was in for a treat. One highlight is the author's dry and witty narrative style, which had me chuckling and, at times, laughing out loud. Although I never embarked on a PhD myself, I related to the feeling of having to write papers on a topic that I had zero interest in, and struggling to make something up that would seem enlightening and profound. I think anyone who has ever written a paper for college will enjoy this book.

Another highlight is the author's background as a Chinese-American novelist. As a reader of Chinese descent, I am so happy to support this author's debut, and I hope more books like this will be published in the future. During this time, it's so important to read #ownvoices books by authors of Asian descent, even if you're not of Asian descent yourself. You might learn something new, and educating yourself about the experiences of People of Color will make the world a better place. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of books that talk about the Asian American experience, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in March!

there are two types of books i love: 1) academia daily dramas 2) twenty something woman wanders around. and this book was both!! the crux of this book is identity. what is your identity, how do you come to understand your identity, how is identity weaponized by people in power. ingrid is an interesting narrator. she is terribly unreliable (most of the time she has taken too many pills) but i grew to like her more and more as the novel progressed. there are some story elements i thought were underdeveloped. one of those being how Barnes handles the first of the plot twists. if the novel is set in the late 2010s it seems very unlikely to have gone under the radar.

I was lucky enough to win an advance copy of DISORIENTATION by by Elaine Hsieh Chou in the Publishers Weekly’s Grab-a-Galley promotion. Thanks for the early look, and have a safe and happy holiday season!

Elaine Hsieh Chou's debut is masterful, wicked, and strikes at the heart of so many issues: academia, token boba liberalism, yellow fever, all while rendered at an incredible pace with a mystery at the center. This is a book I wish I had in my youth, and I'm so glad it will be out in the world soon.

As a mixed Asian woman myself, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when reading this novel. Chou presented characters whose stories seemed so familiar, matching my experiences, or those of people close to me. Utilizing the backdrop of academic, she confronted hot button issues such as race, white supremacy, and cultural appropriation. I feel this novel successfully attacks these issues through Chou’s character development. Readers witness Ingrid’s shifting views on the world and herself through various experiences. This journey provides credibility to her beliefs and adds to the organic nature of her transformation. Chou doesn’t have to convince readers American society stifles the expression of other cultures, fetishization of Asian women exists, etc., because readers are able to witness these experiences transpire for one character in a well-developed plot. Whether agreeing or not with Chou’s beliefs, I feel those reading will be left thinking and analyzing their surrounding environment more closely for the nuances she presents.

A dizzying take on the campus novel, on identity & race, and on scholarship in general, Disorientation was at times droll and at others, a spectacle I couldn’t take my eyes away from. I don’t particularly care for Chou’s characters — not Ingrid, not Eunice, not Vivian — but I don’t mean that in a negative way. I meant that they all are, at some level, completely unlikeable and other times, you want to root for them, and then again, at other times, want to completely roll your eyes at their actions. The plot meanders a bit (the book could’ve gotten a good 1/3 of it cut and you wouldn’t miss the missing bit) but overall, an interesting book that tries its best to fit the Paul Beatty model of satire.

3/5

I went into this pretty blind, only knowing it was a genre I love, messy millennial women in academia. Delightfully, this ends up being so much more than that (though that's certainly part of it).

Ingrid is a PhD candidate in East Asian Studies, writing a dissertation about famous Chinese-American poet and local legend Xiao-Wen Chou. However, she didn't choose this topic herself- her mentor and advisor, Michael, "suggested" she write about Chou. What follows is a shocking (but also not shocking) examination of racism, academia, yellowface, layers of oppression, identity, and the politics of being Asian-American in a world of white supremacy. I was blown away by the nuance included at every turn, and while the climax of the story does seem almost too much to believe, I don't doubt it's possible in our society, where racism is perpetuated by white elites.

This is a must read IMO.