This is a book about how people see themselves and how they fit into the world around them. It's about what each individual regards as desirable physically and culturally.
The main character, Kelly, a caucasian male, was married to a Chinese woman. He had met her when he went to China to study. Eventually they returned to the U.S. Kelly had been working on an advanced degree at Harvard when he and his wife had a daughter. Realizing that he wanted a steady paycheck at this point in his life, he took a position at a public radio station in the Boston area. A couple of years later his wife and daughter are killed in an automobile accident. Kelly is depressed and wants to move somewhere else where he hopes the memories won't be so strong. He accepts a position at another public radio station in Baltimore where he spent his teenage years. There he happens to meet up with a friend, Martin, whom he hasn't seen in twenty years. But now the friend looks like a black man.
Martin is a businessman. He wants Kelly to craft a story about how he, Martin, reached the decision to have "racial reassignment surgery" so that he can promote a business that will provide this service to the world and be viewed as acceptable and desirable.
No comments:
Post a Comment