The Brightest Star: A Novel

by Gail Tsukiyama

Overview

The beloved bestselling author of The Color of Air, Women of the Silk, and The Samurai's Garden returns with this magnificent historical novel based on the life of the luminous, groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood.

At the dawn of a new century, America is falling in love with silent movies, including young Wong Liu Tsong. The daughter of Chinese immigrants who own a laundry, Wong Liu and her older sister Lew Ying (Lulu) are taunted and bullied for their Chinese heritage. But while Lulu diligently obeys her parents and learns to speak Chinese, Wong Liu sneaks away to the local nickelodeons, buying a ticket with her lunch money and tips saved from laundry deliveries. By eleven Wong Liu is determined to become an actress and has already chosen a stage name: Anna May Wong. At sixteen, Anna May leaves high school to pursue her Hollywood dreams, defying her disapproving father and her Chinese traditional upbringing—a choice that will hold emotional and physical consequences.

After a series of nothing parts, nineteen-year-old Anna May gets her big break—and her first taste of Hollywood fame—starring opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad. Yet her beauty and talent isn't enough to overcome the racism that relegates her to supporting roles as a helpless, exotic butterfly or a vicious, murderous dragon lady while Caucasian actresses in “yellowface” are given starring roles portraying Asian women. Though she suffers professionally and personally, Anna May fights to win lead roles, accept risqué parts, financially support her family, and keep her illicit love affairs hidden—even as she finds freedom and glittering stardom abroad, and receives glowing reviews across the globe.

Powerful, poignant, and imbued with Gail Tsukiyama's warmth and empathy, The Brightest Star reimagines the life of the first Asian American screen star whose legacy endures—a remarkable and inspiring woman who broke barriers and became a shining light in Hollywood history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420518054
Publisher:	Gale, A Cengage Group
Publication date:	10/30/2024
Edition description:	Large Print
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English. She is the bestselling author of seven previous novels, including Women of the Silk, The Samurai's Garden, and most recently, A Hundred Flowers, and has received the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.

Editorial Reviews

04/17/2023

Tsukiyama (The Color of Air) delivers a comprehensive but lackluster fictionalized memoir of Anna May Wong, the first successful Chinese American film actor. Since Anna May’s childhood in 1910s Los Angeles, she’s dreamed of becoming a movie star. Her traditional father, who runs a laundry, is staunchly opposed, but her mother and older sister are quietly supportive. At 16, Anna May lands a breakout role in The Toll of the Seal, though pervasive racism and anti-miscegenation laws dog her career and mostly limit her to stereotyped bit parts. She’s more readily accepted in Europe than China, where the Chinese press excoriates her with accusations that she’s dishonoring her heritage. Still, after her father and younger siblings return to his ancestral Chinese village, she visits them in 1936. She faces more challenges in the 1950s, first with a serious medical diagnosis and then with fewer opportunities for roles, but her ambition persists. Tsukiyama nails the tone of an amateur memoirist struggling to get her story down, but it doesn’t make for very dynamic fiction, and the rushed pacing doesn’t help. Tsukiyama makes clear the miraculous nature of Wong’s story but doesn’t quite find the form to convey it. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

I can think of no better author than the incomparable Gail Tsukiyama to introduce readers to Anna May Wong. For all of her remarkable life, Wong struggled against the racism of Hollywood and the conservatism of her family. For every triumph there was a disappointment, but for every disappointment, there was also a triumph. Through it all, the ups, the downs, the in-betweens, Tsukiyama keeps her focus on Wong's bright, resilient spirit. A beautiful, haunting book.” — Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times Bestselling Author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“In the riveting pages of The Brightest Star, Gail Tsukiyama once again invites her readers into an intriguing historical realm that remains in the shadows but should be widely known. Her latest novel lifts the veil on the rise of young Wong Liu Tsong, the Chinese American woman better known as the legendary first Asian American movie star, Anna May Wong, and shares the stereotyping and prejudices she was forced to navigate as she made her ascent. A fascinating portrait.” — Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Mitford Affair and co-author of The Personal Librarian

“This stirring story about the drive and courageous spirit of a talented, barrier-breaking American icon works magnificently.” — Booklist (starred review)

"Tsukiyama has been amplifying Asian voices throughout her career, and her new novel offers an intimate look at what made the original Chinese American film star tick." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

05/01/2023

Tsukiyama's (The Color of Air) fictionalization of the life of Anna May Wong (1905–61), a first-generation Chinese American who acted in films, theater, radio, and television, generally sticks to the true timeline and events of Wong's life. Wong grew up in Los Angeles, living behind her parents' laundry business. Her father didn't approve of her acting career, especially when she garnered negative reviews in Chinese newspapers because her characters were scantily clad or stereotypical. She longed to play characters who weren't concubines, prostitutes, or evil dragon ladies. As one of the first Chinese American actresses, she often struggled to get movie roles for two reasons: Hollywood protocols and anti-miscegenation laws prevented her from starring as a love interest to a white man, and Asian roles often went to white actors in yellowface. She was determined to take the roles she could get and never give up on acting. While Wong's life is fascinating, the author's use of the first-person perspective is not always successful. VERDICT Tsukiyama imagines Wong's conversations, letters and emotions, but at times the narrative feels detached, like a history book or Wikipedia page. The novel is most effective at showing what it took to be a star during the movie business's early years, especially for a Chinese American woman.—Leah Shepherd

Library Journal

Narrator Cindy Kay guides listeners through a fictional account of legendary Asian American actress Anna May Wong's life. From a young age, Anna dreams of leaving her traditional household and her father's laundry to become a movie star in Hollywood. Facing racism, heartache, and even the disapproval of her own people, Wong travels the world looking for success and acceptance. Cindy Kay's crisp and strong narration captures the strength and poise of the legendary actress. Kay's performance as Anna May Wong has an emotional resonance that sticks with the listener. V.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

July 2023 - AudioFile

Narrator Cindy Kay guides listeners through a fictional account of legendary Asian American actress Anna May Wong's life. From a young age, Anna dreams of leaving her traditional household and her father's laundry to become a movie star in Hollywood. Facing racism, heartache, and even the disapproval of her own people, Wong travels the world looking for success and acceptance. Cindy Kay's crisp and strong narration captures the strength and poise of the legendary actress. Kay's performance as Anna May Wong has an emotional resonance that sticks with the listener. V.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AudioFile - JULY 2023

2023-04-12
A pioneering Chinese American actress reflects on her life in Hollywood and the prejudice she faced throughout her career in this biofiction.

As a child coming of age in early-20th-century Los Angeles, Anna May Wong longed to be an actress—and she made it happen. This would have been unimaginable if it weren’t true, considering that Wong rose to fame in an era of the Chinese Exclusion Act, anti-miscegenation laws, and morality codes in the United States. As the book begins, Wong is traveling by train from California to New York in 1960, near the end of her life, and she's reading over three notebooks in which she's chronicled her stardom, dazzling social life, complicated family life, activism, and struggles with racism, misogyny, alcohol, and health. There's no doubt that the breadth of Wong’s life is worthy of artistic treatment, and she’s inspired many Asian American writers, including novelist Peter Ho Davies and poet Sally Wen Mao. The U.S. Mint released an Anna May Wong quarter in 2022. Tsukiyama presents Wong as a complex, savvy, iconoclastic artist caught between cultures as she surfs the tides of history. The novel demonstrates how Wong courageously weathered the industry's transition from silent films to talkies to the advent of television as well as her tumultuous times, from the Roaring ’20s through the aftermath of World War II. She had fascinating friendships with the likes of Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich and experiences working across America, Europe, and Asia. But in offering so much painstaking, historically accurate detail, Tsukiyama sacrifices story. For readers familiar with Wong’s biography, the book reads too much like an elevated Wikipedia entry. Swaths of the novel are repetitive, summarizing previous events as if they were weekly series recaps or emphasizing Wong’s struggles as a third-generation Chinese American woman without imagining any more of her internal landscape.

This sympathetic account of a silver-screen legend flies admirably between triumph and tragedy but struggles to soar.

Kirkus Reviews