Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu

by Yi Shun Lai

Fiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. Semi-Finalist, Thurber Prize for American Humor. Marty Wu, compulsive reader of advice manuals, would love to come across as a poised young advertising professional. Instead she trips over her own feet and blurts out inappropriate comments. The bulk of her brain matter, she decides, consists of gerbils "spinning madly in alternating directions."

Marty hopes to someday open a boutique costume shop, but it's hard to keep focused on her dream. First comes a spectacular career meltdown that sends her ricocheting between the stress of New York and the warmth of supportive relatives in Taiwan. Then she faces one domestic drama after another, with a formidable mother who's impossible to please, an annoyingly successful and well- adjusted brother, and surprising family secrets that pop up just when she doesn't want to deal with them.

Mining the comedic potential of the 1.5-generation American experience, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK is an insightful and witty portrait of a young woman scrambling to balance familial expectations and her own creative dreams.

"A breezy and charming tale ... Anyone who's grown up immersed in a profoundly rich old-world culture and feels its constant pull will commiserate--and be entertained."--Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family

"Marty is a wonderful character who learns to stand up for herself and discovers what she really wants in life."--Booklist

"An expert combination of humor and deep feeling... Digs deep into the particular challenges of defining and asserting an artistic identity in the world."--PANK Magazine

"Ceaselessly surprising and entertaining... Lai's debut is an unexpectedly radical book on our deeply complicated relations with parents."--Hyphen Magazine: Asian America Unabridged

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2016

About the author

Yi Shun Lai (say "yeeshun" for her first name) is the author of the forthcoming young adult historical novel A Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic (Atheneum Books, Spring 2024). Her prior books are PIN UPS, a memoir (Homebound Publications, 2020) and the novel NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU (Shade Mountain Press, May 2016).

She is a columnist at The Writer magazine.

She teaches in the MFA program at Bay Path University.
Visit her on Twitter or on the web.

Reviews

[Naz (Read Diverse Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the in-depth review, visit my blog: Read Diverse Books

I have never read a self-help book myself, at least not all the way through, but I’ve heard that they’re a multi-billion dollar industry just in the U.S. alone. It seems Americans are willing to spend big money on self-improvement or ways to “fix” themselves. I can certainly see the appeal. Who doesn’t want to be the best version of themselves? Some people’s problems run too deep, however, and may need more than a couple of self-help books found in the Barnes & Noble bargain section. Marty Wu is someone with a complicated life who also sees the appeal of self-help books. In fact, this novel itself is a collection of diary entries that were motivated by a self-help book she found in the used-book section of a local bookstore. This book is called “The Language of Paying Attention to YOU,” which has a silly title, but has resonated profoundly with Marty Wu, as she constantly refers to the advice it offers.
Continue reading

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marty Wu, the protagonist of Yi Shun Lai’s debut novel, is an advertising account executive for a retirees’ magazine but dreams of opening her own costume shop. The novel is her Bridget Jones-esque diary, often written in a kind of shorthand style contrasting her goals with her seemingly inevitably failures, as in: “Crap. Is 4:00 a.m. Have breakfast meeting. Must sleep.” She’s constantly quoting to herself the advice and wisdom she’s gleaned from various motivational books she picked up in hopes of self-improvement.

Lai writes engagingly about the contrasts between Taiwan and the States, and carefully evokes traditional aspects of Taiwanese culture – status symbols, feasting, the marketplace, and the complexities of family roles. This is a lighthearted, summery read for fans of the Bridget Jones series or Camille Perri’s The Assistants. Watch Marty ditch self-help books and start living the life she wants anyway.

See my full review at Nudge.

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of meeting Yi Shun Lai a couple of years ago as she graduated from her MFA program, and I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to read an advance copy of her novel. Set in New York and Taiwan (with a significant episode unspooling in Las Vegas), NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU introduces us to a young woman seeking her way, both personally and professionally, often with the "help" of advice manuals that advocate the writing-down of one's thoughts and experiences. Some of the challenges she faces are of her own making; others stem largely from lifelong conflict with her mother, conflict which Marty eventually comes to understand and deal with more successfully. Snappy and entertaining throughout--notwithstanding the tension-filled mother-daughter moments.

[Melanie Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu is a smarter chick-lit story that is more slice of life than looking for a happily-ever-after ending. If you’re looking for a light read about a modern woman navigating two worlds and an abusive mother, Yi Shun Lai’s book is for you. Yes, I know that sounds like an oxymoron.

My full review is up at Grab the Lapels.

[Lupe Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so I have to admit for the fist 50 pages, I skimmed the book. Literally. Just ran my eyes over the words because OMG I HATED MARTY'S MOM!!! But then I was like, "No, I should really read this" and HOLY CRAP. This was probably one of the best books that show the complexities of immigrant families who keep their ties to their home countries by families while trying to raise "American" families in the US. Like, I'm American, but my heritage is Mexican and my mom (also American but Mexican heritage) always made sure I never forgot that, like her mom did to her. But the difference between her mom and my mom was that my mom UNDERSTOOD and could raise me "American" and my grandma was that of this mixed nations: her brother was still in Mexico, while she was born in Texas.

So the whole book revolves around this idea of Marty, born in Taiwan but raised in the US, butting heads with her super traditional mother. So they take a trip to Taiwan to see their family (First and Second Aunts and Uncles. Literally. Called First Aunt or Second Aunt and First or Second Uncle. That was strange) and Marty's brother, Ken, who was adopted by First Aunt. This trip, however, is preceded by Marty utterly blowing to bits this super important account for her ad agency and her mother berating her about how terrible she is.

Once in Taiwan, basically, all hell breaks loose.

I have to admit, this book ended up being utterly spectacular and so, so heartbreaking. But Yi Shun Lai does a fantastic job of showing us the two worlds, the two generations and how then can both work together and fail spectacularly. Just, really really a great read.

[Jess Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything and most importantly it made me feel everything.
Marty is a very relatable character, she's charming, quick witted, and all together a strong woman. But a strong woman who FUCKS up. A lot. And that made her even more interesting.
I will say this though, being a victim of parental abuse, this was a bit triggering to me. I couldn't finish it in one sitting since whenever there was a critical scene and her mother was in it, I had to put the book down and take a step back. Re-assess the situation. Recognizing I'm not the protagonist.
This book really draws you in with sarcasm, humor, heart felt realizations, modern pop culture references, and the fun dropping of F bombs!
Highly recommend.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book reflective of our generations struggles with employment and what to do with our lives. Marty struggles with needing a job to pay the bills, but longs to follow her heart. Marty's career problems are further complicated by her relationship with her mother. Oh, her mother. Marty is truly in need of all the self-help books she has amassed with her career, relationship, and family problems. Her trip to Taiwan ends up adding more to her full plate instead of fixing anything.
A great read with lots of twists.

[Sharon Mentyka]

I've got a review of Lai's book up on my blog site here: https://sharonmentyka.wordpress.com/2...

[K. Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book near the time of release. Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu by Yi Shun Lai, follows Marty, our female protagonist, through her jobs, relations, and career dreams. The book is written as diary entries as Marty learns from several self-help books humorously quoted as publisher, price, and location (and if the book is on sale!). The epistolary format works well, because Marty learns to open up to her journal and at the same time opens up in her own life.

Lai is a phenomenal writer, pulling disparate threads of someone’s life together to form a cohesive story that covers relations to work, other people, and especially tensions in family. The novel focuses on a few relationships to Marty: her mother, a potential romantic interest, her best friend, and her brother. Without giving much away, the primary relationship is between Marty and her mother, an often antagonistic relationship.

For me, this book was difficult to read and process due to verbal (and some physical) abuse Marty receives from her mother over the course of the book. Readers who identify with this background should be aware that this content does arise and can lead to unpleasant feelings. However, for me, I could appreciate the truth in which they were told, and how the background was revealed on why. Lai never justified the abuse as necessary, and often treated both abuser and victim as human in a way that is believable and sensitive. There is a part, without giving too much away, that felt rushed between the two, but ultimately left me satisfied as a reader and as someone who identifies as an abuse survivor.

Outside of that, the novel is a page-turner and often we shake our head at Marty’s foibles and wonder how she manages anything (as she often wonders herself) while at the same time rooting for her at every turn. Marty is human on the page and very very relatable. She makes poor choices (as evidenced by the subtitle word “misadventure”) and many of us have been in similar situations and at the end of the work, we understand Marty better, because she finally comes to terms with her past and her present and choses to better her future. This book gives hope to those who may have experience similar situations.

Overall, this debut novel is worth picking up from Shade Mountain Press or on Amazon. You will not be disappointed. I look forward to more work by Yi Shun Lai.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It starts light and poppy, a touch of Bridget Jones, all mishap and awkwardness and wry laughter -- but Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu deftly transforms into a deep and tender meditation on the nature of family, of love, of secrets and what it means to keep or tell them. There are any number of takeaways from this sneaks-up-on-you story, the subtleties of which are, in the end, painted as delicately as the watercolors described within. The contrast of style to substance is novel and addictive -- I stayed up far past my bedtime to finish it. Recommended.

[Elisa Doucette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic insights into a world I don't know much about, second generation immigrant families. And a world I know a bit more about, Western-acclimated Asian cultures. The main character, a quirky fun sales rep with costume design dreams buys self-help books constantly to help...herself. Who knows if it is the lifetime of self-help realizations and study or the growing up and coming to terms with her place in the world, but Marty is a character you will both empathize with and grimace for.

[Kim Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marty Wu is the Jack Tripper of young women aspiring to a life in the arts, tumbling into a cascading professional/personal disaster with a vaudevillian recklessness. And yet at the same time, Marty navigates a dysfunctional relationship with her mother that would be funny if it weren’t so painful, and the pull of her dreams in the midst of complicated relationships across two cultures. Yi Shun Lai deftly weaves a tale of laughter and tears in this debut novel.

[Bridget Drury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved meeting Marty and watching her navigate this roller-coaster portion of her life. I had so much fun, and was sad at points, but more importantly related to her so much. I've had those thoughts and conversations about how to manage my mother... Luckily I don't have as much to manage as Marty. I'll miss Marty, but am excited for what Yi Shun Lai brings next.

[Tiffany Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky, hilarious, and continually surprising, Not a Self-Help Book takes us across the world and back on a breathless search for personal meaning. Anyone who has ever felt trapped between her dreams and family expectations will love this book.

[Stewart Lee Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sympathetic characters with plenty of LOL moments!

Although this is not the kind of book I would normally read, I was drawn into it based on an Amazon free sample download. I most enjoyed Ms. Lai's portrayal of her protagonist, Marty, whom we come to know via Marty's entertaining voice in her diary entries. There's much more to the story, however, in particular, the well-developed mother-daughter dynamic of the book which prompted me towards further reflection on my own mother-son relationship. Perhaps with age, we come to realize that our loved ones did the best they could with life in our flawed and transitory existence.

[Jamie Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with Marty on page one. She is immediately both very real and very endearing. She is delightfully imperfect, but her imperfection never feels contrived. All the pieces fit. I know people like Marty. You know people like Marty. Though she is decades younger than I am, and much of who she is has to do with the dysfunctional relationship she has with her mother (my mom and I are best friends), I found her completely relatable.

Her story unfolds as a series of diary entries, which she pens in an attempt to cope with everything that's happening in her life. (I won't give any spoilers, but there's a LOT happening.) As someone who has journaled since the age of seven, I found Lai's "dear diary" voice is spot on. Marty's on-page ramblings and rantings are honest, transparent, sometimes slightly self-indulgent, often incredulous, and - at all the right points in the story - illuminating. She doesn't pull any punches. I was also impressed with the way Lai wove the narrative (including dialog) into an epistolary style novel without ever jarring me out of the story.

Not a Self-Help Book is a funny, irreverent, heartfelt story of one woman's journey to discover what she really wants, who she is, and how she can best navigate the treacherous waters of her relationship with her mother. It's a story about holding onto dreams, making mistakes, and what happens when we discover that things are not exactly as they seem.

[Joe Ponepinto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a Self-Help Book adopts an exhilarating pace from the start and never lets up. I love the style—a cross between a diary and a narrative gives the reader a chance to see Marty Wu from both inside and out. The story is both entertaining and thoughtful. The tension in Marty’s life is always high, which makes it a real page turner. The relationship between Marty and her mother is especially powerful. The mother says things like, “Get inside. You’re so ugly today I can’t stand to think the neighbors might see.” Now there’s character motivation for you.

There’s a great undercurrent in this book, which is Lai’s deft treatment of what one might call the American cultural conundrum—how to find acceptance as an individual while remaining true to one’s origins. The pressure to silo oneself for the convenience of others’ belief or self interest assaults Marty from all sides, and provides the force that drives this book so engagingly forward. Lai subtly makes the case that it’s what we do with our lives that matters, not what we look like, or how our names sound, or what the crowd or the ancestors say we should think. Marty will always be Taiwanese-American, but it will be on her terms.

Definitely a great read.

[Tabitha Blankenbiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Not a Self-Help Book" begins as a lighthearted novel told through the eyes of a quirky young narrator with a flair for drama and a knack for graceless interaction. What I thought was going to be a voice-driven romp through a New York based career and its pitfalls quickly pivoted into something much deeper and memorable: an unflinching examination of family dynamics, self-perception, excavation of the past and the fluidity of mistakes. Yi Shun Lai has created a character who is hopelessly human and impossible to turn away from. She's the friend we may want to strangle, but never cease to hope she continues moving forward. Never heavy-handed and impeccably paced, this is a shining example of what the future holds for this writer, who can balance serious issues with humor and heart in deft turns. A perfect ocean-spanning read for summer with plenty of substance.

[Jacqueline Haskins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get swept up in the funny and fast-paced misadventures of Marty Wu. Those things you never tell anyone—yes, those horrible mistakes and yes those even more locked-away dreams—they’re beating Marty Wu up too. If you’ve kept that glazed smile pasted professionally on while looking like a stressed wildebeest in a sweaty, frazzled, death-spiral—Marty Wu feels your pain. If everything you do disappoints your mother and its opposite would too…if you keep choosing the wrong guy or have ever thrown up on a deal-breaker client…you don’t need a self-help book: you need Marty Wu. (Although if you’ve wondered, like Marty, “who gets lint on their cheekbone?” maybe you just need a therapist.) Lurking under Marty’s madcap misadventures are thoughtful threads on family, secrets, and resilience—even though this is not, I repeat not, a self-help book. Enjoy!

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marty Wu isn’t lacking for is wants; although very few of them are her own. It is within a young woman’s chaotic search for self and purpose that Yi Shun Lai crafts Marty’s unique narrative and the navigation between the desires of those who love her and her own destiny. One part joy, two parts laughter, and three parts I-can’t-believe-she-just-did-that, Lai’s dynamic narration introduces us to voices as surprising as they are satisfying. A story honest as it is heartbreakingly hilarious, readers will fall hard and fast for Marty and her author. A splendid debut.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was charmed by this book. Marty is so likeable. And funny. And flawed, and familiar. And her story of mothers and daughters, of cultural exploration and self-discovery, of New York City and Taiwan, of best friendship, of the places where self-improvement meet self-acceptance, of the artist's life.... it all has such depth and interest and richness, yet it's written lightly, deftly. Smartly. There's sweetness and edge, delight and despair. I will be thinking about Marty and her story for a very long time.

[Jamie Canaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, entertaining read (with a bit of an emotional punch) written in diary format that made me think Bridget Jones Diary if BJD had centered more on a fractured mother daughter relationship than romance and she’d spectacularly failed at work in a manner that made her run away to another country.

[Elizabeth (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that had me coming back for more, but I have to confess that I didn't actually like the characters. Marty was frustrating and her mother was intolerable. While I appreciate coming of age stories (even those for adults), this one wasn't quite as satisfying.

[Alex Clark-McGlenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky book that deals with how people live lives that are filled with cultural and familial expectations.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty and fun.
A clear "voice" and a good read.

[GSMC Book Review Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hilarious. It's more than just funny, though, it's also poignant and thoughtful. Some of Marty's struggles will be familiar to many, but her particular cultural and family circumstances draw attention to how those struggles might be different for as a 1.5 generation Asian American woman. Marty struggles with a lot of expectations from a lot of different sources, and she has to sort through numerous layers in her life and the lives of her family, especially her mother, in order to begin to sort through those expectations and see where they line up with the expectations and hopes she has for herself. Yi Shun's writing is witty, intelligent, and relateable. I laughed a lot, and I rooted for Marty as she navigated the numerous twists and turns her life took as she found not only new information about her family and herself.

[Ann Kiefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the start of this book, I thought I would only rate it 3 stars at best. The characters aren’t very likable, and I just didn’t care about them. But I’m glad I stuck with it. This book was a good reminder that people sometimes behave badly toward those they love for reasons we know nothing about. As this story unfolds, we learn more about the characters, and they grow and change over time. It’s also a good reminder to always, always be kind because we don’t walk in anyone else’s shoes but our own.

[Gore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had this book as a requirement for a class. Never actually finished it until now. I guess it took me so long to finish either because I was busy with school work or there are certain parts of the book where the plot just couldn't hold my attention, but there are some points where it did, so I think a 3/5 is a good rate.

[Jennifer Guyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost like visiting the Tenement Museum except it's fiction :) There's a real life feel that comes from this book and I felt like I was meeting new people, people that don't normally hang in my circles and that was really cool, to see Marty's perspective on life and her family and friends. Super fun read, easy to read on the go: little bit here, little bit there.

[Dolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found much to love about Marty Wu. She was funny and relatable. It did not take long for me to become deeply invested in her (mis)adventures. So grateful to Yi Shun Lai for writing a book that captures the 1.5 generation experience!