Fixer Chao

by Han Ong

"When William Narciso Paulinha, a Filipino street hustler, meets Shem C, a disreputable, social-climbing writer embittered by his lack of success, the Feng Shui scam of the century is born. Under Shem C's guidance, Paulinha assumes the persona of Master Chao, a revered Feng Shui practitioner from Hong Kong. Distorting the Eastern concept of Feng Shui - the mystical Chinese art of creating a harmonious environment that promises its followers peace and prosperity - to accomodate Western demands, they peddle their peculiar brand of this holistic philosophy among New York City's elite." "As this latter-day confidence man cuts a swath through upper-crust society, his biting observations form a comic picaresque of class resentment and revenge. But the fraud spirals out of control, and events finally force Paulinha to confront the tragic consequences of his actions, condemning him to live as the man he has become."--BOOK JACKET.

Genres: Fiction, New York, Queer, Gay, Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2001

Reviews

[emma]

being a street hustler pretending to be an expert in feng shui sounds so fun

(thanks to the publisher for the copy)

[Paul Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding literary debut by playwright Han Ong, Fixer Chao manages to be a brilliant satire of the excesses of elitist Manhattanites in the late 90s, while at the same time managing to be a riveting portrait of a failed American dream. Darkly funny and at times very touching, this novel delves into many themes and is a roller coaster of a ride for both us and our protagonist

William Narcisco Paulinha is a simple, humble man, an immigrant for whom the American Dream has fallen terribly short. Smarter than his circumstances would indicate, William is a thoughtful man, one who would rather devalue himself than others, a mind-set completely opposite of the cut-throat world of Manhattan in which he lives. These days, he types manuscripts for aspiring writers, a much better job than his previous outing as a hustler turning tricks in the Port Authority bus terminal. Lonely and frustrated, William is above all a man who wants to do good, and he is on the verge of turning his life around when a fateful meeting takes place.

One night, at a seedy bar William frequents, he meets Shem, an abrasive, bitter man recently thrown out of his home by his wife, the daughter of a famous novelist. Shem is a social climber (though not terribly good at it), a struggling novelist and a relatively unsuccessful author of celebrity profiles. Having never quite fit into Manhattan’s elite, Shem has a plan, a way to exact revenge upon those who see themselves better, smarter and more talented than poor old Shem. Knowing the lemming like quality of the city’s upper crust, Shem knows exactly where to hit them, right in their own naiveté. His targets have all the right clothing, the perfect cars, the buzz-inducing interior designers, but most of all they have the desire–no, the absolute need–to be at the forefront of the latest trends, every hot “new thing.” Shem has everything he needs to succeed, everything except the Chinese man who can pull it all off.

Shem propositions William to take part and become William Chao, a Feng Shui expert from the mysterious East. Shem explains that all William need do is learn a little about the ancient art and ingratiate himself to the elitists to whom Shem will introduce him. From there, it is simple…enter into their homes and do exactly what they want. Arrange their homes to capture the chi, make their living spaces a conduit for successes even beyond their own imaginations. And when he has won their trust, when their lives are on the upswing because of Master Chao’s remarkable gift, pull the rug out from under them by doing one thing wrong. Leave out one simple aspect–a mirror is the wrong place, a bed facing an open doorway–something small that will cause their lives to unravel.

William agrees and embarks upon an adventure that works perfectly as he–no, his alter ego, the Fixer Chao–is lauded and rises to the level of celebrity, the man who can make everything right, the Master whose ancient art can only improve one’s life. But just as William becomes enamored with his new persona, with his life amongst the well-to-dos, and starts believing that he does have the “gift,” Shem reminds him that it is time to turn the tables. A deal is a deal after all.

Slowly, Fixer Chao weaves subtle mistakes into his work, things no one–especially those who truly know nothing about so mysterious and alluring an art–will notice. And lives begin to unravel. Is it because Master Chao has the power, or is it simply the upper crust’s own foibles leading to their downfall? Even William is not quite sure. But just when everything is working perfectly, William meets Kendo, the moody, sexy, appealing son of one of Fixer Chao’s most famous clients. And when Kendo catches on to William’s real identity and the game he is playing, more than just Kendo’s mother’s life begins to fall apart.

For me, Fixer Chao was a book I just didn’t want to see end. Ong’s style is seamless, his words deftly drawing not only a caricature of the time, but a rich life into which one is absorbed. He balances the opulence and excesses of the high-life in Manhattan with the dreary reality of William’s real life, and in the process creates two completely opposite worlds co-existing in the same space. The character of William is almost an anti-hero, someone who is terribly flawed, but someone for whom you just want everything to turn out right. And when William meets Kendo, the spark, the attraction is palpable. You just want them both to get together, get away from the shackles of their respective lives. But this isn’t a fairy-tale. There isn’t a happily ever after here.

Ong has a masterful hand at the prose, rich without ever falling into excesses. He draws his characters fully, with a deft hand, and makes us care about them despite ourselves. The result is a truly satisfying story with wonderful social commentary. It is a story about a twisted sort of love…the love of self, the love of the spotlight, the love of success, but over all, this is a biting satire about the lengths anyone can go to when they are tempted…or naive enough to believe. This isn’t a romance by any stretch, but if you like your gay men complex, funny and a little bit messy, this is highly, highly recommended and one of my essential gay-themed books.

Originally reviewed for Uniquely Pleasurable

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite funny. Quite thought-provoking. Quite inspiring. Quite disgusting. The reading is easy and Master Chao somehow represents the many Filipinos who migrated to the Big Apple trying to earn their own place under the sun.

This is the story of William Narciso Paulinha who migrated to the United States when he was a teenager. For an unknown reason, he landed as a street hustler, giving oral sex to lonely men inside toilet cubicles at a bus station in New York. There he meets Shem C a fellow Asian who, like William, is not happy with what they are doing. Shem introduces William to the art of feng shui and so William transforms himself to Master Chao a fake feng-shui expert from Hong Kong. With a complete but convincing lie, the two fool the rich and famous New York clientele to the extent of them amassing great wealth that equals most of their own patrons.

The story is about east and west and never the twain shall meet. But here they did meet in the person of Master Chao. It's just that the feminine east was able to fool the masculine west. I italicized the two genders because I never thought of the east and west having genders and I don't know where Han Ong got the idea. I have been working in multinational (mostly American) companies since I started working almost 3 decades ago and once I heard from a colleague that some crazy Americans look at Asian men always with doubt as to their sexual preference especially during the initial encounter. So, this east and west of Han Ong must be in line with that.

This picaresque novel is inspiring because the poor William is able to rise from practically rags to riches in the Big Apple. However, the end does not justify the means. It is still not moral and ethical to fool people even if you are pushed to the brink of despair and hopelessness. However, I cannot give this less than 3 stars because I felt triumphant for Master Chao. When push comes to shove, when it a choice between sinking or swimming, when the tough gets going, Filipinos sure know how to rise from the challenges. That made me like this novel and don't ask me to explain further.

Long live Master Chao!

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wacky novel of deceit captures the precarious and confusing opulence of the late-90s, pre-9/11 New York City. William Paulinha, a Pilipino “street hustler” is trying to make good on himself but finding it more difficult than he’d expected. When an opportunity presents itself to him for one last hustle that promises him enough capital to finally move away from the seedy underbelly of NYC, he takes it. In this book, that opportunity is Shem, a disgruntled writer recently cast aside by his wife and father-in-law, the illustrious novelist Bill Hood. Shem (appropriately named) enlists William, ostensibly purely for the racist reasoning that he looks the part, to act out the part of ‘Master Chao,’ a Feng-Shui expert – in an era where all of the uptown elite is looking to grab at this latest imported (fetishized) trend, which will gain them access to his former peer’s lives and ultimately destroy them by reflecting their own shallow, feebleness back upon themselves.
Written by Han Ong, a successful playwright of the early 2000s, the novel does have a sort of dramatic stage-like presence in the way each character moves/is directed through each scene. It was a lot of fun to view this world through William’s eyes, especially as he projects a serene, worldly presence to others while thinking ridiculously funny, bitchy thoughts about them. It felt very much like a crack-up of a Jay McInerny or Tom Wolfe novel through a totally difference perspective. All in all, it was a little too long and overwritten for my taste (often times taking 10+ pages to get through something that, in my opinion, could have been expressed in 1-2pgs), but generally a very enjoyable beach read!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Han Ong is an exceptional wordsmith. His ability to turn a phrase and use of metaphors are wonderful. And the plot he has created -- a story of a down-and-almost-out Filipino in NYC who gets a chance at salvation -- quickly draws the reader into a realm of two extremes: that of the upper-crust New York society of snobbish elite, and that of the very near hand-to-mouth existence of the ambitionless. And this is where I think the novel runs into trouble. Because these two extremes are actually very much alike and Ong does an exceptional job showing the reader how alike they are. But by the end of the story, the protagonist misses his opportunity to rise above both existences and transform his own life in the direction his heart tries to move him. Instead, the protagonist slips back into a defeated acceptance of his lot as being unchangeable. But it was only unchangeable because he eschewed the opportunity to transform himself. If anything, the novel succeeds in portraying the premise that good intentions don't matter if you cannot summon the actions to follow up the intention.

William Paulinha is an intelligent Filipino squandering his life in New York City. After going through the superficial and promiscuous lifestyle of being a hustler, he manages to get along typing manuscripts for others. He is an astute observer of human nature, but he's stuck whining about how everyone else is getting along. Along comes Shem, an angry Jew bent on revenge by proxy and who enlists Paulinha in a scam to get even with the folks he believes have wronged him. It's a scam that appeals to Paulinha: he is to portray himself as a Chinese expert in feng shui and must re-arrange the homes of New York's snobbish elite with a twist -- he must suggest to a client something absolutely wrong so that the feng shui doesn't bring harmony, but chaos and ruin.

Donning the persona of Master Chao, Paulinha reveals to us the schemes and self-centered nature of the elite, as well as the emptiness of their existence. He begins to realize that to desire wealth and comfort won't bring him the satisfaction and happiness that he desires, and he also begins to see how his duplicity by playing the role of Master Chao may prevent him from achieving his goal of being a better person. The reader also sees fine examples of how people at both ends of the spectrum are just as unethical and just as selfish as the other. It's a dog-eat-dog world no matter what your social or economic standing. For a time, I was rooting for Paulinha, hoping he could break away from this selfish existence, but I was disappointed. In fact, Paulinha was sort of anachronistic in that he had such keen intelligence and perspicuity, yet apparently lacked something to make it all work to his advantage. He seemed swept along by a destiny he had no control over, and as a reader that frustrated me. It must be noted that Paulinha's middle name is Narciso, perhaps an allusion to the Greek myth of Narcissus. Like Narcissus who was enamored by his own beauty, Paulinha becomes enamored of his new found power and status in the role of Master Chao, but it was disappointing that Paulinha fell to the same demise as Narcissus.

This may have been Ong's intention from the start, to show how difficult it is to break away from our current condition and that many people fail such attempts. And maybe my non-Asian mind and experiences hindered my ability to appreciate some of the book's nuance. But as a reader, I want to read about a character that does succeed. Ong had me rooting for Paulinha throughout most of the book, but toward the end Paulinha had lost my support.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 3 out of 5]

A street hustler impersonates a Feng Shui master and tends the chi of NYC's wealthy. I enjoyed it until about halfway thru and then, it became a bit of a slog.

6/23/2026: Forgot I read it back in 2018 and reread a reprint edition. Still the same

[Lynn Waldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surreal. What an incredible writer. I could not put this book down, except for an unfortunate chapter when it was stolen along with my bag. This is one of my new favorite books. It has been a lucky summer, and I am excited to look into more publications by "Outsider Editions." I heard about this book in Equator magazine. Ong's writing is beautiful. His character William Paulinha perfectly expresses restlessness and dissatisfaction. What a ride. I loved every character and every vignette - and finally like in the often referenced detective stories - every loose end was tied up. Reading this book has been a very special time. I love a book where things just sort of happen... one thing leads to another unpredictably, somewhat like real life.

[Priya Sethi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever relevant. Enjoyed!!!!!!!!!

[Virgowriter (Brad Windhauser) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. At the sentence level the book is written well. The story also has a lot of potential. However, a number of plot points felt too easy. A street hustler becomes a savy enough person to dupe rich people in a matter of days by reading two magazines? Where did this skill and confidence come from? Also, although he feels danger at being discovered, it’s not like he sold fake art and would go to jail, so where is the tension? Also, there no sense of how well he was doing, in terms of money, until really deep in the book, so you can’t really appreciate the scams. He also, out of nowhere, considers murder in order to preserve his cover—huh? The social commentary that wraps the book is potentially amusing, although the deep introspection in the last chapter does not feel true to this character. Potential to explore race issues and the ability to shed one (Filipino) for another (Chinese) in white privileged society. Sexuality barely a blip here, although he’s supposedly gay—zero sex present (or even really thought about), although he supposedly feels something for Kendo (for some reason never developed).

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn to Fixer Chao after discovering it in a recent New York Times review, and I’m so glad I was. Han Ong’s novel first appeared in 2001 and has now been given a second life through Doubleday’s Outsider Editions, a series devoted to overlooked or forgotten books that sit outside the traditional canon but still speak to our current moment. Fixer Chao absolutely deserves that second chance. I loved it.

The premise alone is audacious. William Paulinha, a Filipino immigrant and former street hustler, is recruited by a bitter writer named Shem to reinvent himself as “Master Chao,” a revered Hong Kong feng shui expert. Together, they infiltrate the homes and egos of Manhattan’s wealthy elite, exploiting their fascination with an “authentic” Asian mysticism they barely understand.

What begins as a very funny con becomes something much sharper: an immigrant story, a story of the haves and have-nots, and a story about how Asian men—and particularly gay Asian men—can be objectified and reduced to whatever trope someone else wants them to embody. When Shem first meets William and proposes the con, it’s hard not to despise Shem. You find yourself rooting for William to accept the offer—partly just to mess with Shem and screw him over, but mostly because you want William to pull off the ultimate exploit, win in the end, and get the redemption he deserves. William understands that people see what they want to see, and he weaponizes it. “The thing about crime,” he observes, “the thing that nobody believes anymore in this day and age of smarts and cynicism and toughness is how foolish the fools can still be.”

But what I loved most was the nostalgia. I moved to New York City in 2001, around the time this book takes place, and Ong transported me back to a Manhattan that was booming but had not yet surrendered itself to smartphones, surveillance and the internet. As the Times review beautifully puts it: “It probably goes without saying that Shem’s mostly analog con wouldn’t really play in the chronically online late-stage capitalism bubble of 2026. One of the incidental pleasures of the book is its evocation of pre-9/11 innocence: Ong’s Manhattan, with its penthouse terraces and sticky-floored peep shows…is a place where opportunity can still land whimsically, like pigeons on a Midtown lunch crowd.”

And yet the novel’s anger feels current. Master Chao asks one privileged New Yorker (ed note: I’ve cleaned up the language), “How much did you think you could get away with, living the way you did, boasting about your station… sharing your privilege? using your privilege to look down on ordinary people?” Twenty-five years later, those words could be directed at almost anyone in power.

Did it lag? A little. At 400 pages, there were moments when I felt its length, though perhaps our diminished attention spans deserve some blame too. But that is a minor complaint about a funny, biting, moving novel that feels both unmistakably of its time and remarkably suited to ours.

[ManOfLaBook.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

For more reviews and bookish posts, and read the Margin Notes section on "Social Engineering in Silk Robes" visit: https://manoflabook.com/book-review-f...

Fixer Chao by Han Ong is a literary satire about a man who pretends to be a Feng Shui master to the NYC elites. Mr. Ong is a novelist, playwright born in the Philippines and moved to the US as a teenager.

William Narciso Paulinha is a poor Filipino immigrant, struggling to make a living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, New York. He crosses paths with Shem, a struggling writer that hates Manhattan's literary elites.

Shem comes up with a scam to humiliate those upper-crust socialites that anubbed him. William is hired by Shem to scam and exact revenge by pretending to be "Master Chao", a Feng Shui master. Their goal, however, is to arrange their homes for harmony, but purposefully mass up some crucial details to ruin their lives in a very subtle way.

Master Chao's success makes him a local celebrity, but William finds himself starting to resent his ostentatious, pompous clients. Soon he starts to see, firsthand, the consequences of his actions.

At its core, Fixer Chao's ultimate lesson is that our greatest vulnerability is our own need for status symbols. When NYC's elites were desperate to appear enlightened, William and Shem's con succeeded with little, if any, scrutiny.

I found the book to be a clever satire, punchy but only moderately funny. I've read, and seen, other similar works poking fun at the excess, pretentiousness, and disconnect of elitists, and how some "street urchin" fools them all.

One of the common aspects to many of these stories is that the narrator, usually the person doing the hustle, acts as the common-man observer. People who are so bored and unhappy, that they turn to a charlatan who promised to fix their lives by.... changing their furniture around.

The elites, those who many of us look up to, are easily fooled when a trend is packaged in mystery. In this case Feng Shui presented by a mystic who promises social prestige. This is especially true when they view Eastern spiritual concepts through the lenses of a wealthy Western, whose vanity and greed seem to be noble goals.

William, the protagonist, realizes that his contempt shouldn't be directed solely, or at all, at his clients, but at Shem, the man who planned the scam. He found himself having many things in common with New York's upper class, and that regardless of riches, many of us face the same struggles of being overlooked, thrown aside, and unseen by our peers.

The clients, William realizes, also suffer from "imposter syndrome". None of them, William including, feels that they belong among the literary elites and exploit others to climb up the social and economic ladder. Imposter syndrome is a real thing, which I discover is true in many aspects of life, not just the IT industry.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of a new series by Doubleday, Outsider Editions, to reissue “extraordinary books” that have been “looked over or forgotten but still speak urgently to the moment.” Fixer Chao is part of this series and reintroduces us to the con artist and the writer assaulting the rich and famous in revenge to capitalism’s greed and mendacity.

William Paulinha is a Filipino American who passes as Chinese feng shui specialist to rip off New York’s elite. He’s teamed up with Shem, a successful Jewish writer, who has recreated William as William Chao newly arrived from China “as a soul directly linked to the ancestral past.” What Chao does is he arranges the apartments of his customers in direct contradiction to the principles of feng shui. For some reason this works and as these two take revenge on the wealthy, they grow wealthy themselves and become as venal

In addition as William says at the beginning of the novel, he wanted to be a writer but he’s never bothered to see if he has “clarity, focus, insight, concision, and the ownership of something to say.” Thud becomes almost a measure for William as he meets writers in the book, and sadly, none meet this standard either. This theme mixes with that of the convoluted feng shui to show people can’t tell the difference between good and bad art. The publishing business takes a hit in this book too.

When William’s con is exposed and all the shoddy writers have their field with the story, William is a crass as all those he despised. Instead of hating the rich he just hates everyone. Such good satire.

This is a complex novel that packs a big message that resonates almost twenty-five years later. Art is becoming corrupted; greed is the new god. Artifice is the way of the world. And in his ending to his Introduction, Han Ong writes that in this “new (old) era of Major Malfeasance and Grifter Goons, let it be understood that each victim of the current U.S. administration is a Chao, a Shem, a Shem-in-Chao, waiting out the long game so that they may present the gift of this maxim to toddy’s crop of villains: Beware the life you earn.”

My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for allowing me to read this ARC.

[Dana Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review: Fixer Chao (Han Ong) One more book offered to me by my daughter from off my extensive wish list on Bookcrossing. I suspect this one will sit with me for quite awhile. Some of it I found very offputting, and yet, it is so well constructed and so eye-opening that I couldn't help but get drawn in. I believe there are sections which just seem tawdry, never a feeling I enjoy reading about. I have no experience to compare to that of a down-and-out immigrant in New York City, so there was much for me to learn. The main character, a Filipino former hustler, is approached in the seedy bar Savoy and drawn into a scheme of revenge by Shem, a disgruntled and angry man seeking to give a comeuppance to certain figures in high society who have done him wrong. The scam is to create a persona for William Paulhina in which, as Master Chao, an expert in Feng Shui,he will become the darling of high society.. but instead of creating harmony in the lives of the people who consult him, deliberately sets out to do them harm. Interestingly, even though it is easy to detest both sides of this stand-off of class society, the truth is that there is beauty and ugliness in individuals which transcends stereotypes. I did indeed cringe at the behavior and attitudes of the super entitled wealthy, but I also cringed at the seediness of some of the disadvantaged. Throughout, though, the complex character of the man who becomes Master Chao lays bare New York Society in a multitude of ways; I couldn't but help wanting him to come out of it all on top. He does and he doesn't. And that is pretty astonishing. A tough read.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends, Doubelday books has a reissue series of books they are calling Outsider Editions, where they are reviving forgotten extraordinary books. Fixer Chao by Han Ong is the first one I've gotten my hands on, and if it is any indication of the type of books in the series, consider me seated.

    Fixer Chao is about William, a gay Filipino hustler that wants to move on to a different, better path for himself. Instead he bumps into a friend, Shem who is an author who's been cast out of the elite New York literary world. Shem is out for revenge, and manages to pull William in on this plan. Shem turns William into Master Chao, a high end Feng Shui consultant. 

    It's a read that feel fresh and current, it really is a darkly comic read. A keen observations about how quickly people accept stereotypes,  especially when they work out in your favor.  I think for the most part everyone sort of gets what they deserve here. There's a big web of deceit and man is it tangled and twisty. Questions of identity, ambition and the good o'l American Dream make Ongs 2001 novel feel like it was just written today. OK, minus the landlines they use...

[Syafa Abdul Rahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings I think. Reading this book sometimes felt like a chore, but that could be because of the timing and because we had to read it during a busy time in my semester. It's less than 400 pages but definitely felt like a longer book. I liked the passages about the transitory state of immigration and the experience of being a migrant. The writing, though at times a bit lengthy, plays with words (in multiple languages) in a really clever and darkly humourous way that I also appreciate.

[Ryan Smillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent turn-of-the-millennium New York satire. Deliciously mean-spirited, with a perceptive point of view that makes a target out of nearly everyone involved in a rapidly gentrifying Manhattan. The fine line (and indeed, the intersecting Venn diagram) between scammers and strivers, high-rise aristocrats and dive bar lowlifes. A really compelling narrator who has a clearer view of the hypocrisy and obscene wealth that he comes into contact with, but who is still indicted for his own moral compromises. Really glad that this has been reissued!

[Shloka · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a slog. A really fun premise and there were moments of humor and brilliance throughout but mostly this was filled with the kind of impenetrable “literary” prose where the author is really pleased with his turn of phrase and my eyes just glaze over. By the end I was mostly skimming my way though and was no longer paying attention to what was happening. Absolutely did not need to be a 400-page novel.

[Michalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 stars

[Anna Ta · Rating 5 out of 5]

kind of stressful but thoroughly enjoyable

[Margo L · Rating 2 out of 5]

jumped ship!

[Jamie Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5. lots of interesting themes

[mims · Rating 3 out of 5]

a high 3 stars to a funny, hopeless, malevolent, and smart novel that rambles just a bit too much but i appreciate how big of a hater han ong is.

[Karen Carlson]

I LOVE his Pushcart 2025 story "Ginger for Everything" but this doesn't really sound like my type of book. Still, it might be worth a try.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite books I’ve read in a very long time

[mmm_chelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastic premise, I really wanted to like this one. Unbelievably slow moving and vague. Too long of a read to suffer through to see how the main character gets his just desserts.

[Veronica Pamoukaghlian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular. Profound social criticism, hilarious character creating and superb plot. A triumph. Muy actual.

[Aharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly earnest satire, with a Chekhov gun that didn't really need to go off.

[Michael Caylo-Baradi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this years ago, around the time it came out. I want to read it again, with that same copy I bought in the Bay Area, buried somewhere in piles of boxes that contain memories, skeletons, and other intriguing dusts. I think this book deserves four stars. The prose is smooth, perhaps as smooth as its protagonist's abilities to persuade those who are hungry for the attention of persuaders. But how interesting, indeed, that William Paulinha ends up in Los Angeles, a paradise for talented hustlers plotting their next scams.

In an interview, Ong had mentioned Anita Brookner, that he likes her work. This sort of shows in Fixer Chao; the prose, I mean. But Ong's second novel - The Disinherited - does not quite inherit his luminous prose in this first novel. I'm waiting for his next work.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended. A down and out Filipino Immigrant becomes a faux expert at the trendy practice of Feng-Shui, posing as a Chinese master of this obscure art form. Previously having been a gay male prostitute, his station in life is certainly advanced after he signs on for this position, with the guidance of a strange Orthodox Jewish man who wishes to get revenge on his ex-wife. Before Long "Master Chao" is in high demand among the privileged households of New York City, his touch seeming to bestow fortune to all who receive his services. Due to his identity being false (as the professional whom he proclaims himself as to the world) he struggles with negotiating situations that strike awe into the person that he really is beneath the illusion.

[Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bitter writer spurned by the New York social elite teams up with a Filipeno hustler to exact his revenge through a phony feng shui scheme. This novel is aggressively unfunny and I didn't buy a second of it -- neither the scheme itself nor the flatly-drawn "victims" reactions to it were remotely believeable. The author potentially has something interesting to say about the racism inherent in the eagerness of Western society to fetishize Asian culture, but unfortunately this novel is not an effective vehicle for it.