Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Intercity life can be hard on any kid – especially in Detroit.  For Curtis Chin, growing up Asian American in the 1970’s and 80’s in the city was another level of challenge.  Chin’s family was well known in Detroit’s Chinatown as restaurant operators and community leaders, rubbing elbows with the city’s first black mayor, movie stars, and more.  With the entire family working in the restaurant, Chin and his siblings grew up doing homework at a back kitchen table, learning the business and recipes from first observing and later working in the kitchen and on the floor to help.  But, more than anything, Chin learned who he is and what he wanted to accomplish in life inside those walls.

In Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, Chin recounts stories from inside the restaurant as well as his life experiences with education, finding his own place at college, and his activism.  The memoir is structured like a Chinese restaurant menu, moving through menu sections as Chin’s life moved to new phases.  Early chapters deliver family humor and banter that could easily be found in a television sitcom.  Middle chapters contain a coming-of-age story about a boy coming to terms with his sexual identity and working to break free of his family’s control.  In the final chapters, Chin reflects on his college experience, coming out as gay, and early professional writing and producing career, culminating in moving across the country to forge his own path.

I give Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant 4 out of 5 stars.  The early chapters of this book are hilarious and had me laughing out loud.  I could visualize the environments Chin describes and hear the voice of his grandmother and mother ringing in my ears the way it must have for him growing up as well.  The writing throughout contained great dialogue and detail that really connects the reader to the author’s memories.  However, the later chapters felt like they didn’t connect well with the rest of the story and the pace felt rushed.  Where Chin spent a good number of pages recounting what felt like trivial stories from childhood, his later memories were recounting much quicker and left me wanting him to expand on the storylines and open up more.

This memoir is a great choice for readers looking to connect with the story of Chinese immigrants who chose to move to America’s heartland instead of the heavily populated California or New York areas.  If you enjoy Chinese food, this book is for you, too – the description of the menu and cooking process had me craving egg rolls and almond chicken!  With discussions of prostitution, pornography, and violence, this book should be directed towards mature audiences over the age of 16.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review by NetGalley and the publisher Little, Brown and Company.  I enjoy memoirs and find this book to be no exception, but probably would not have picked up the book on my own in the store.  I am thankful for publishers and services like NetGalley who help put good books in the hands of readers like me who might not otherwise connect!  Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin will release on October 17, 2023, but you can preorder a copy today in our Bookshop.org store!

This post contains affiliate links.

What I’m Reading

• Current print book: The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune
• Current audio book: Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Maame, Jessica George