“The Expat” promises to be a high stakes corporate thriller. The results are quite different.

"Imagine writing a book about an expat that runs away to Sydney to escape their shady past and having the result be BORING."

That brief message was exactly what Lakshmi dashed off to Asha after finishing "The Expat," a new debut thriller by author Hansen Shi.

What made our initial reaction to "The Expat" extra disappointing was how excited we were to read the premise when we received the book's press materials from Pegasus Books.

Main character Michael Wang should have everything going for him. He's a recent Princeton grad who landed at a promising position at General Motors, yet feels like he is overlooked and neglected -- not because of his age or relative inexperience (he is, after all, just 26), but because of his Asianness and the "bamboo ceiling" that seems to loom over him and everybody he knows.

Like many 20-somethings, Michael is also grappling with reckoning with his family's experiences as an adult -- and continues to wonder about his parents’ choices and their relationship to China, the country of their birth. Michael also can't seem to get over the fact that he never felt accepted at Princeton, or really anywhere and wonders how he can really strike out on his own.

But as he wonders what to do next, he finds himself drawn to a shady corner of the internet and a new online friend named Vivian, who in addition to being alluring for personal reasons, has an idea.

Would Michael want to meet with a wealthy Chinese venture capitalist who might be able to help his career?

When Michael agrees, he quickly finds his life changed -- with both a job offer in Beijing in his hands and FBI agents eager to make his acquaintance. As Michael navigates this tightrope, he also must decide once and for all where his loyalties truly lie.

We received access to review copies of "The Expat" through Pegasus Books. Readers can purchase their own copy through our Bookshop storefront.

Lakshmi: Ha, the description I just wrote for the book is juicier than the actual book!

I really was rooting for us to like this one. The first chapter was great! Then it kept losing me.

Asha: It’s an odd mix of some really great sections and really mediocre sections

Lakshmi: The first chapter is so good!

Here's a passage from page two that I really enjoyed. The opening of the book is an exploration of the concept of nostalgia (which originally was viewed as a form of mental illness). It’s clear the author enjoyed exploring this concept:

Since I relocated to Sydney three months ago, I have experienced many symptoms of chronic nostalgia. At night I lie awake listening to NPR podcasts. I have lost weight, which I am secretly thrilled about. I have become obsessed with, consumed by, the news in America.

Nostalgia also torments me during my waking hours. Sydney is perpetually flooded with sunshine, a cultural export of California. If I close my eyes while walking through the farmers’ market in Pyrmont Bay Park, the scent of strawberries and saltwater teleports me to the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace. Like a famous ex-girlfriend, America is everywhere

I look, in the form of movie trailers, advertising jingles, franchise restaurants, and cereal boxes. Here is what I have learned: as an ex-American, nostalgia is as inescapable as gravity—not a perfect analogy, I am aware, since an American flag flies on the moon.

I read this and thought, ‘yesssss, an exploration of being a stranger in a strange land with nowhere to call home! Give me more!’

BUT, my goodness,  this book is so weird and also misanthropic (in general) and also weirdly misogynistic in a very ‘Asian bros on Reddit’ way? But I want you to share more on your thoughts before I start talking.

Asha: I looked up the author and Hansen Shi is a Harvard and Philips Exeter alum who works as a venture capitalist.

Lakshmi: Yeah, seeing all that spelled out-- I should have guessed we wouldn't have liked that one.

Asha: It all makes sense now that I know that! (and he's a recent Harvard alum: 2018)

There was definitely potential...there are plenty of people who work in finance who are more self-aware.

Lakshmi: Also, both the author and the main character went to Ivies, landed at some of the most recognizable companies in the world after graduating yet still… feel like the world is depriving of them of something? I don't know if the author feels like that, to be fair! But his main character certainly does. Whereas it's like, dude you are 26, maybe you aren't getting promoted because you are still building your skillset?

Asha: It's true, I shouldn't be ungenerous — we don’t know what the author thinks, we just know the character. Maybe the point was that his protagonist is insufferable?

Lakshmi: I certainly kept thinking that while I was reading. We never get a clear reason why the reader should believe the bamboo ceiling is holding him back. The character is DULL, his brilliance is NOT APPARENT. Maybe if he just powered through for four years he'd get a fancy title bump at 30 hahahaha.

Asha: It's true! His boss tells him relationships are important, but it's clear he thinks his boss is an idiot

Lakshmi: Right! Instead of interpreting that convo with his boss as a generous talk by a mentor, he dismisses it, but he doesn’t have great ideas about how to handle this issue instead?

Asha: And as the book goes on, we're lead to believe that he's not actually brilliant (at least that was the feeling I got)

Lakshmi: (THIS IS A CLUE, Michael the Main character!)

Yes, if you are going to write a character like this, you have to really convince the reader that an injustice is being done and that the company really is missing out by not promoting him.

But to me, there is no reason not to take convos like the one he had with his boss at face value. If your boss tells you to work on your soft skills, maybe you should at least consider it!

Asha: He goes on and on about meritocracy, but if no one knows what you're working on, you can't really be part of the meritocracy. Part of succeeding on merit, is being able to communicate those successes to other people and having them recognize that.

Lakshmi: Yup. He needs to refine that skill instead of stewing for pages on end that no one understands you because you are the child of an Asian immigrant.

We of course write all this as children of Asian immigrants ourselves! But it's really easy to fall into the trap that everyone is out to get you at work! 

Asha: It definitely is! especially when you're not really open to hearing feedback. Oddly enough, Michael claims he is open to feedback: he posts some of what he's working on on a coding website and solicits critiques from other users.

Lakshmi: True. He does ask for help in that way! And acknowledging that you need help isn’t fun because it also means that you have to do things like go to the business section at the library and check books out on ‘negotiation’ and start listening to podcasts on ‘leadership’ and watching YouTube videos on formatting spreadsheets and you know, doing things on your own time to actually bolster your skills. (Please note that it took me a good 15 years to figure out everything I just listed in this last paragraph!)

Of course race and gender play a role in how we are perceived at work, but sometimes criticism genuinely means you have things to work on and refine. Ultimately — in my experience — people just want the work done and it’s rare that things are ever truly that personal in a workplace, especially when it comes to early career positions.

Asha: The one big thing that's sympathetic about Michael is that his father disappeared (presumably back to China) when he was a kid, and neither him nor his mom have heard from him since.

Lakshmi: Yes, the father storyline was one of the most compelling parts of the work.

Plus, I can also see how people of his father's generation would absolutely run into racism and misunderstandings at work

Asha: Definitely! especially when you immigrate with an advanced degree but then have to take a menial job

Lakshmi: Yes. It’s so clear that the reason his father yearned to go back to China (and presumably ran off to do that) was that he had a deep seeded yearning for respect that he wasn't getting here. not at work, not from his spouse, and not from his child

But I do feel like there are people who get it

and people who don't, but they blame everyone but themselves for the fact they don't.

I also feel like-- as usual-- we need to talk about the racial politics of this book!

Because I honestly had a hard time focusing on the thriller aspect of the book because so much of the way race was written about was so distracting and mildly disturbing.

Asha: What specifically distracted you?

Lakshmi: Here’s an example: 

There was a Chinese American man and a brown man. As soon as they spotted me, their broad bodies sprang into action and homed in on me. The Chinese American man wrung my hands behind my back and handcuffed me while the brown man read my Miranda rights. As they marched me through the crowded terminal, I kept staggering as the force of the agent’s hand at my back constantly threatened to push me over.

A brown man? (This is in reference to his FBI agent Reddy.)

Asha: So that part didn't bother me too much, probably because the writing style felt very matter-of-fact

Lakshmi: OMG, his FBI agents who were tracking him (Agent Lim and Agent Reddy)

HAD A COLLEAGUE AT THE FBI NAMED SCULLY!  SCULLY, THE FBI AGENT.

Asha: Yes, someone has been watching a lot of X-Files.

Lakshmi: Jinx. I was about to say that’s the X-Files for all of our non-90s kids readers.

Asha: Anyway, the book had a lot of cut-and-dry descriptions so I think what you might have found distracting was just plain description by an obnoxious narrator to me.

Lakshmi: Yes. but then-- like you said earlier-- there would be the occasional chapter that gets it all exactly right.

As these memories seeped into the foreground of my mind, an acute sense of dread descended upon me. I didn’t wish to think of myself as retracing my father’s meek footsteps. My anxiety waxed when I remembered that I had not been back to China since middle school; I had, in fact, more or less avoided all of the sponsored trips during college, for fear that a place once so important for my self-mythology would prove disappointing. I’d always thought of China as somewhere my distinctness would be instantly recognized, but

some part of me must have known that I would’ve felt like just another uninvited guest in a foreign country. Well, there was no more putting off

the question. With a new sense of purpose, I finished what was left of the now-cold coffee and went back to the office.

That bit rings so true.

Asha: It does!

Lakshmi: There were also these weird references to the Uyghurs —  like completely non supportive comments and asides.

On the one hand, yes, this is probably what corporate upper class Chinese Americans (and Chinese in general) believe.  but.. I don't need to read this?

so those bits were also jarring, even though they were definitely minor parts of the larger story.

Asha: I think I understand what he was trying to do with that section, but he didn't incorporate it well, mostly because it came so far into the book.

Lakshmi: This is how chapter 16 opens up though: 

My first thought was that maybe something awful had happened to Vivian. Perhaps she had been abducted by an Uyghur resistance group or a gang of organ traffickers. A lot could go wrong in two weeks.

Asha: True, I forgot about that! But it's a throwaway line that's easy to gloss over. Michael doesn't really talk about Chinese politics outside of IP theft so it becomes a weird aside.

One thing I want to say about this book is that it's billed as a spy thriller, but the stakes feel low?

Lakshmi: Yes. This is not an “international thriller” in the way it’s been billed.

Asha: Right. At no point do I really feel like Michael is in danger and (worst of all!) those sections of the book are...boring...

Lakshmi: Yup, I remember exactly the moment I realized this book would be a let down.

It’s when we (the reader) discover that the FBI is investigating Michael for stealing trade secrets. But he works for a car company! So he’s not stealing drugs (legal or illegal), not gold or gems. It’s just gross (but fairly run of the mill) white collar corporate crime.

Asha: And while the authorities do threaten him with jail time, it doesn't actually seem serious.

Lakshmi: The plot definitely needed more development.

But I also wanted to talk more about the Uyghur thing. So the second, longer scene that references the Uyghurs occurs during a corporate panel in a conference-like setting. Someone in the audience interrupts and asks about working in China when human rights abuses are going on and the tone of the book is so on the side of the corporate ppl!

There is no sympathy towards the Uyghurs at all, and that was very striking to me.

Asha: Michael's on the side of the corporate people, and he's the narrator so that makes sense to me!

Lakshmi: I guess, haha. 

Also, I wanted to talk about Vivian briefly. On paper, she is clearly a honeypot. Her job is to seduce and get the job done — but she wasn't very alluring either! 

Asha: She wasn't! But all the female characters are fairly two-dimensional. How can we expect her to be alluring if she didn't really have an inner life?

Lakshmi: Yes, there is also a consistent theme throughout the book that Asian American women have it easier than Asian American men

Asha: With this attitude I half-expected Michael to be red-pilled!

Lakshmi: Yes! For example, what even is this?

Somehow, in college and in life more broadly, (Asian x female) seemed to unlock a hidden fast track while (Asian x male) redirected you to the spam box. It was like some twisted karmic retribution in the West of the One Child Policy in China, which had created such a strong preference for boys that the gender ratio had been irreversibly skewed in macabre ways I won’t get into.

Like I said, parts of this book were the worst part of those Reddit pages for Asian American dude bros.

Asha: Unfortunately. Anyway, it's time to go. Do you have a final thought?

Lakshmi: No, hahaha. This was a weird dud!

Asha: Not everything we read can be a winner!

Each month, we’re sharing our current list of pop culture favs with readers! These are a few of our (current) favorite things!

What we are reading: 

Lakshmi: One of my book groups recently started reading the original Anne of Green Gables out loud and it’s been delightful. I’d forgotten just how perfect those first few chapters were.

Asha: I’m still on an Agatha Christie kick, and I just finished “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?”. It’s nice to mix up the Poirot novels with ones with one-off amateur detectives who inevitably fall in love. 

What we are watching:

Lakshmi: If you know me personally, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that I have three different text threads about the upcoming Oasis reunion. What better way to get ready for a tour by the boys from Manchester than by watching the 2016 documentary “Oasis: Supersonic”?

Asha: AppleTV+ has some great shows with big name actors. I’m currently engrossed in Sunny with Rashida Jones. She plays an American in Kyoto whose life is upended when her Japanese husband and son disappear in a plane crash, and she receives a domestic robot from his company. 

What we are listening to:

Lakshmi: I coincidentally also found all of my CDs from the late 90s/early 2000s recently so I’ll be fully prepared for any future Britpop revivals.

Additionally, I’ve also really been enjoying the podcast “Dish,” in which the British presenter Nicholas Grimshaw and the Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett have different UK-based celebrities over for a meal. It’s fun! 

Asha: I went to see Deadpool + Wolverine, which has a soundtrack that can only be described as “millennial candy”, so I too am on a late 90s/early 2000s kick.