JUNE 2017 - AudioFile
Wang’s short novel is about growing up and finding your own way. It’s funny and warm and well performed by Julia Whelan. The unnamed narrator is a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry who is realizing that maybe she’s not all that into chemistry. She has a patient boyfriend, a best friend, and immigrant Chinese parents who war at marriage and push her hard to greater achievements. Whelan’s tone is perfect. She generally plays it straight, an interested observer of the unnamed character's own life. By not overdramatizing the serious parts of the book, or giddying up the humor, Whelan lets both stand on their own, which they are strong enough to do. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Chemistry starts as a charming confection and then proceeds to add on layers of emotional depth and complexity with every page. It is to Wang’s great credit that she manages to infuse such seriousness with so much light. I loved this novel.” —Ann Patchett
“Chemistry is a genuine piece of literature: wise, humorous, and moving.” —Ha Jin
“With its limpid style, comic verve, and sensitive examination of love, need, and aspiration, this exquisitely soul-searching novel is sure to be one of the most outstanding debuts of the year.” —Sigrid Nunez
“Science is an excellent lens for Weike Wang’s look at a young woman’s wonderfully skewed experience of love, ambition, loyalty, and, of course, chemistry. The pressure to excel, as applied by immigrant parents, comes up against basic questions of self-discovery: ‘Find me the thing that I can make the greatest impact in and I will do that thing,’ says the chemistry whiz who has gone off course. This very appealing narrator is funny and original, and the novel is filled with compelling information from the world of chemistry as well as gems such as Einstein’s thoughts on love, communicated to his daughter. In a word, this debut is: elemental.” —Amy Hempel
“Chemistry casts a rare spell, some alchemic mixture all its own. Though her ingredients are familiar—being young, uncertain, and estranged—Weike Wang gives them to us anew; her wry, off-beat vision demands that we look again, as if for the very first time.” —Casey Schwartz, author of In the Mind Fields
JUNE 2017 - AudioFile
Wang’s short novel is about growing up and finding your own way. It’s funny and warm and well performed by Julia Whelan. The unnamed narrator is a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry who is realizing that maybe she’s not all that into chemistry. She has a patient boyfriend, a best friend, and immigrant Chinese parents who war at marriage and push her hard to greater achievements. Whelan’s tone is perfect. She generally plays it straight, an interested observer of the unnamed character's own life. By not overdramatizing the serious parts of the book, or giddying up the humor, Whelan lets both stand on their own, which they are strong enough to do. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
