Waylaid

by Ed Lin

Waylaid is the story of a Chinese American boy who struggles to grow up in the grip of an overcharged sexual environment. With a daily routine that involves renting out rooms to johns and hookers at his parents' sleazy hotel, the narrator loses his grip on concepts of friendship, family and childhood. As he pursues his all-consuming quest to lose his virginity, issues of race, class and sex cripple his sense of self-worth. It is a story told with a Gen-X-style bleak humor that doesn't pander to conventional notions of immigrant narrative. Waylaid doesn't cut a wide swath through Asian American literature. It is a switchblade in the gut to stories of over-achievement and success in America that ignore the human cost.

Genres: Fiction, Asian American, Young Adult, Adult, China, Literary Fiction, School

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Ed Lin is a journalist by training and an all-around stand-up kinda guy. He's the author of several books: Waylaid, his literary debut, and his Robert Chow crime series, set in 1970s Manhattan Chinatown: This Is a Bust, Snakes Can't Run, and One Red Bastard. Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. Lin lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung.

Reviews

[Andy Weston · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a novel I suspect is based on the author’s own upbringing, a Chinese American boy grows up in his parents’ hotel on the New Jersey shore in the 1980s. The hotel is falling to bits, and the boys’ parents are on hard times, making ends meet by renting rooms for a few hours to prostitutes. Working in the hotel, the 12 year old narrator becomes sexually aware at a young age.
As much as Lin wants his story to be about the immigrant experience, and the coming of age of a young boy in a disadvantaged family, he gets the balance wrong. Instead the narrative comes over as a bawdy adventure as the boy attempts to lose his virginity. It’s an effort to lighten the mood, but the balance is too much down the ‘Confessions of a Hotel Receptionist’ road to be taken seriously.

[Sean Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed Lin's "Waylaid" takes the conventional coming of age story and the immigrant story and smashes them together while breaking the conventions of each genre. The main character is a 13 year old boy who works in his family's run down motel on the Jersey shore. He is totally preoccupied with sex and spending his days and nights working in hotel that rents at hourly rates doesn't do anything to tame these impulses.

In one of the numerous contradictions that make the book so interesting the boy has in some ways no freedom because all of his hours away from school are spent working in the hotel, but because his parents are so consumed with running the motel in some ways he has freedom far beyond that of his peers.

Lin's delivery is perfect. The mixture of naivety and experience of the narrator combined with the situations the motel puts him in area hilariously rendered. Lin capably blends this humor with the sadness of the families circumstances.

[Rebecca S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unpleasant reading experience

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

The temptation with reading a book written by a friend is applying the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist to the thoughts and experiences of the author's. Where is the line between fact and fiction drawn?

I met Ed while facilitating workshops at the then fledgling Asian American Writers' Workshop. What is most attractive about his writing is his clarity of tone and keen skills of observation. It is no surprise that he has a degree in journalism. The question is: Did the study of journalism inform his obeservations or did his knack for catching otherwise forgotten details inform his journalism?

[Nicholas Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nailed it.

[Carol Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific autobiographical (I assume) novel about a young Chinese boy whose family runs a "hot sheets" joint in New Jersey. Fascinating detail about his adjustment to a difficult mileau and his quiet acceptance of the necessary, if distasteful, work that supports his immigrant parents and himself.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angelina recommended this book to me. It was readily available through my public library, and I do love books about teenagers, so I decided to give it a chance. This is certainly a quick read, well-written, and funny.

I laughed along with the unnamed Taiwanese-American narrator, suffering through his adolescence at the Jersey Shore in a crappy motel owned by his parents. It's all there - sexual fixation and awakening, wayward mentors, distant parents, the futile black hole of school. Surrounded by porno magazines abandoned in empty rooms and hourly rooms rented to johns & prostitutes, his budding sexual desire is a primary element in the story. There's more, though, as the seasons change and the winter tenants become the summer vacationers and the school year slips away. Every room rental has a story - even if it is a story nearly identical to the previous one.

Waylaid is charming & feels authentic. It gave me a sense of real humanity in just a few quick pages. It's interesting, and ultimately, hopeful & reassuring.

[Elizabeth K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

I wasn't really clear on what this book is trying to do. As it opens, the 12 year old narrator is helping his parents operate a run-down hotel on the Jersey Shore, and his view of women and sex is mostly formed by his encounters with men bringing cheap prostitutes to the cut-rate rooms. That's pretty grim, but not necessarily bad as a set-up. And then ... that's it. That's the entire book. The writing's not bad, but I have a dire suspicion that the point of the book might be that nothing changes, which is a yawner.

Grade: D
2009/45

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really quick, fun read (I finished it in an afternoon) about a 13 year old boy who runs a trashy hotel with his parents (Chinese immigrants) in New Jersey during the early 70s. The boy (who is also the narrator and whose name is never given) is obsessed with getting laid. His sexual frustration is made funnier by the fact that he's surrounded by sex (prostitutes and johns, dirty magazines) at the hotel.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Juvenile on all levels

I chose this book based on a recommendation in the NYTimes. After reading it I have no idea how or why it was even reviewed. Juvenile writing, plot, and execution. I'm embarrassed to have selected it for our book club. Skip it.

[justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish i was an astronaut too sometimes.

[Andrew Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally got around to reading Ed Lin's first novel which is about a Chinese/Taiwanse-American kid growing up in the 1980s while helping run his immigrant parents' sleazy New Jersey shore hotel. Its a dilapidated hotel with even more sleazy clients that include endless johns, aging men on the road, and seasonal partiers from Brooklyn.

The unnamed protagonist is 12 but already years ahead of his time working in such a sleazy environment and we follow him for a year as he makes it his mission to gain his sexual manhood after being surrounded by so much occurring in his sleazy home life. Not quite a coming of age story but it did provide a unique Gen-X type of feel from an Asian-American perspective. As a Taiwanese-American growing up in 1990s Silicon Valley, this novel certainly reinforced the notion that the Asian-American experience (even for Taiwanese) is far from monolithic. I'm not well versed in memoirs or much reflective writing but this novel certainly had an ambiance that I got from early 1990s grunge work that painted a bleak world view. Nonethelss a one-of-a kind novel I recommend for a rainy lazy afternoon inside.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the perspective of this book, and that it is set in New Jersey. It takes many of the cliched tropes of the immigrant story and it does critique them, even challenging that education can be the immigrant’s sure-fire way to achieving the middle class version of the American Dream. I do think this one pairs really well with American-Born Chinese as it touches on the desire to erase one’s self in the hope of assimilating into American culture, even though American culture is presented as hollow, promising little.

As a coming of age story, though, this novel leaves something to be desired as the protagonist never really attains a sense of understanding about his identity, or his culture, or the people around him. It just meanders, which can be effective for a certain type of novel (usually a philosophical one, and this one is not that). The narrator is left no different than what he was at the initial stages of the book--his perspective did not broaden, his conflicts did not lead to any sense of resolution, and given that the book takes place over the course of a year, it seems unrealistic, especially when talking about a 12 year old.

[kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Waylaid" is the story of an unnamed 12-year-old Chinese American boy who works in his family's sleazy, pay-by-the-hour Jersey shore motel. The narrator's obsession with sex and his fantasies with the porno mags and other sexual artifacts that he finds in his hotel rooms make up a large part of the book. The johns who routinely come by his hotel do nothing to quell his burning desire to find a girl he can sleep with. In addition to school and long nights and weekends spent working at the hotel, the narrator has very little freedom to be a kid. This gives him a wealth of knowledge beyond a typical preteen, which is played out throughout this book. Although he considers himself American, he continually faces racist comments by the guests, which he is forced to accept with a smile.

The only reason I gave this book 3 stars is because I didn't care for the ending, which seemed kinda rushed to me. This story is definitely entertaining and funny, it's worth checking out.

[Raymond Goss · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a more traditional coming of age, immigrant story, read Ed Lin's "David Tung Can't Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College." That one is 5 stars.
This book was not to my taste. I don't think I liked any of the characters. The story was depressing and ending was surprisingly so. I rate the book 2 stars for me, but give it 5 stars for originality, being daring and different.

The author and I were friends when he was a senior in High School, in a nice town. His family owned a well run Quality Inn at the time. His family was nice, including his sister. The character in this story doesn't have any of that going for him. Ed drew upon his experience growing up as an Taiwanese-American, whose parents ran a hotel (or maybe two). I'm sure the details he put into the book come from some of his experiences, but thankfully things turned out much better him.

[Dave Rush · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wrapped up in the isolation, that is the pursuit of the American Dream, this young first generation kid, attempts to assimilate and become one with the world by taking on the ideologies of those he meets in person and on the pages of naughty magazines. Seeing sex as the route to enlightenment, he becomes obsessed with the act and begins to label all those around him from the lens of this one solitary action. Like a modern day Salinger, Ed Lin creates a lovable loser. Profanity becomes poetry, pornography elevates to prose. In the rawness of the plot and character development, we are reminded that teenagers are dichotomous beings. Humorous, heroic, horrifying, and hyperbolic. An unbalanced but beautiful creation.

[Yara · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I had on a New Orleans Mardi Gras t-shirt that I’d found in one of the rooms and a pair of Yankees shorts. Imitation leather slippers from Taiwan left treads on the top of my feet where the straps crisscrossed." This is the 12 y/o protagonist of Waylaid, a son of Taiwanese/Chinese immigrants, who is determined to lose his virginity! Taking place mostly in his parents’ seedy hotel on the Jersey Shore, this novel reminds us of the often overlooked, working class immigrant family through the perspective of a young boy in unconventional circumstances.

[Aislinn Sanders · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me uncomfortable in a bad way. I could not relate in any way to or enjoyed reading about a 12 year old horndog boy who hates his parents & gets what he wants through manipulation. He's bullied & yet he's friends with the bullies? There was some clever writing, all of which was overshadowed by the main character's constant reminder that all he wants is to have sex. I like Ed Lin alot, but if this were my first introduction into his writing, I probably wouldn't have read any of his other books.

[Paul McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not your average coming of age story. It is narrated by a 12 year Chinese American boy who is tasked with helping to run his parents motel at the Jersey shore (think Asbury Park, not Cape May) in the early 80's and who is determined to lose his virginity.
The motel is a complete dump, that other than during the summer, basically rents rooms by the hour.
The story is very crude, and also very funny.

[John Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrator of this story is a 12 year old Asian-American boy who is very intelligent. He finds himself having been born into a difficult position. His parents are own a motel and are barely making it. The narrator manages the front desk often and has to deal with all kinds of unsavory people. The language is a bit raunchy. So if that would offend you give this a pass.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the movie 'The Motel' which this book is based off of. The book has a lot more than the movie and is quite raunchier. I like both the movie and the book equally, as they each have their own wonderful qualities, but I say read the book first, then watch the movie and see which one you prefer more.

This review is also posted on the LibraryThing website.

[Chiyeung Lau]

“If Holden Caulfield were asian.” Waylaid does an amazing job showing the real struggle most first generation Chinese Americans go through as they attempt to eke out a living in a country that they are learning to call home.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent memoir - entertaining, interesting and one of my favorite books.

[Montgomery Webster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story: 4.0 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 8
Prose: 7

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

(1.5) Yikes. So unpleasant. I see what the author was trying to do but I’ll take my Asian diasporic trauma without the heaping side of female objectification and misogyny next time.

[Darryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short coming of age novel is narrated by the unnamed son of Taiwanese immigrants, who own a rundown hotel in a forgettable town on the Jersey Shore. His father earned an engineering degree in Taiwan, but was unable to keep his job in the US. He spends his summers, as do most of the residents of the town, catering to young vacationers from North Jersey and New York, who tear up the hotel and town and pollute the beaches with beer bottles, cigarette butts and condoms. During the rest of the year, the hotel is populated by lonely old men and hookers turning tricks. He starts obsessing about having sex, spurred by the porn magazines that he picks up while cleaning the hotel's rooms, and he engages in humorous and mostly futile attempts to get any of girls he meets to sleep with him. Although he is a good student, he despises almost everyone, especially his parents, who eat stinky Chinese food and make him work like a dog, his school mates, who isolate and make fun of him because of his race, and the hotel's guests, who punch holes in the walls and treat him with condescension. There is hope for him, as his scheme to get his cute classmate and girlfriend to sleep with him in one of the hotel's empty rooms may come to fruition before long.

Waylaid is one of the best coming of age novel I've read, as it authentically portrays the daily frustrations and small victories of a teenage boy trying to fit into a town that doesn't want or respect him, and whose parents don't understand him. The regular low-level discrimination he has to put up with as an Asian-American ring true, as do his parents' struggles to survive in an unfriendly town. I did not find this to be an overly depressing read, as the author does not dwell too long on the narrator's negative experiences and frustrations, and humor and honesty are present throughout this well written work.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in less than a day because I couldn't put it down (and yes, it's also very short), but even as I devoured it, I couldn't decide how I felt about it. While it takes place in a fascinating world, I've never really loved these gritty coming-of-age stories about pre-teen boys whose lives seem to revolve around masturbation. (Maybe they're ruined by the fact that I have two younger brothers and I just don't like to think too hard about any of it.)

But this book is more than grit for the sake of grit. The narrator's unsentimental style makes his observations all the more poignant, and the last chapter--revelatory in a quiet, nothing-happens-but-everything-happens sort of way--brought everything together for a satisfying (and devastating) ending.

My only complaint by the end is that this book is (physically) so tightly bound that it's like a hand workout to keep it open wide enough to read. I'm glad Kaya's binding is different now!

[nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel (and also the inspiration for the indie movie The Motel) is about a 12 year-old Taiwanese-American boy working in his parents' motel (where one can rent out a room for only 3 hrs).

The protagonist (who is unnamed, but probably a fictionalized version of Ed Lin) is raw, honest, and lonely as an only child with adult-like responsibilities such as renting out rooms to unsavory characters. I enjoyed the dated references to scantron machines and credit card books.

The book is definitely not a "model minority" portrayal of an Asian family nor does it show white longing. It's a book about a boy without many friends, who wants to be normal, and thinks he needs to get laid, who just happens to be Asian.

[Cheryl Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slim and hilarious seemingly autobiographical story of a 12-year-old Chinese American kid whose parents own a cheap motel on the Jersey Shore. He works long hours cleaning up after scuzzy tenants, and he would be predictable or pitiable if not for the fact that he spends all his precious free time beating up 12-year-old assholes at school and reading the porn magazines he finds under hotel mattresses. It's hard to think about child labor laws when said child is busy thinking, "I reread the letters [in Cheri]. Women driving, walking, or sitting alone were dying to get naked and suck and fuck."

[Iejones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another ARC which seemed like a light read. It took me some time to get around to it - but once you hear the protagonist's view of his young life your heart cries. I have not read too many stories were the central character was a young adult and child of immigrants. This community is doubly burdened by straddling two worlds. I enjoyed his youthful view of adult affairs, as well as, his growing sense of "manhood" and sensuality. Brief but poignant I have come to appreciate those first generation children of immigrant parents who find safety and identity with other marginalized people who love them for who they are.