The Dim Sum of All Things

Keeping up with the countdown of the "Coloful Chick Lit Challenge," I just polished off The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner.

Now, I was a little worried about reading another book by this particular author because I read her YA novel, I want Candy, and it was totally horrendous! The details concerning the sexuality of 14-year old Candy Ong was just plain disgusting. What teenager goes through all this? I couldn't even get through half the book because I was too sick to my stomach.

But The Dim Sum of All Things was different.

Lindsay Owyang is a 20-something year old receptionist who doesn't like to show off her ethnicity, doesn't want to walk around with a sign reading, "I'm Chinese." She actually wants people to see her for who she is (don't we all, right?) She is mainly attracted to white guys but avoids those who have Asian fetishes. She lives with her grandmother, the mah-jong champ who's always looking to marry her off to one of her friend's grandsons. Lindsay has never had a head or the manual for romance until the day she receives an email from a sexy co-worker. Suddenly, the reader is taken on an awesome adventure through the scenes of Chinatown and Middle America.

Most of what Lindsay talks about is what it's like to be Chinese. It's like "Ask A Mexican;" only, in this one, we "Ask a Chinese." Some of her sayings, what she likes to call cliches, were funny! I have to admit that her crush with Michael was too crazy, almost to the extent that she basically stalked the poor boy, constantly watching his every move in the office.

Also, I really didn't know Lindsay's whole mission in life. Was it that she was looking for love, acceptance, understanding, wisdom, what? Really, the whole thing was just a bunch of mindless drivel of "I wanna be less/more Chinese." It seemed like she was complaining a lot about her Chinese-ness.

By the end, I was glad that Lindsay was FINALLY asking herself the very questions I've been wondering about throughout the entire book. The revelations she comes to realize suddenly made her a well-rounded human being.

I have to say that this was definitely better than I want Candy; however, she could've cut down a little on the scene descriptions. They were a bit too much, and too much of anything is bad.