One can glean a great deal about a family's dynamics by observing how they interact during a family vacation. RENTAL HOUSE, by Weike Wang, tells the story of one such family, a blended family, actually. Keru is a Chinese-American who married Nate, a Caucasian man. They met while students at Yale at a Halloween Party where Keru flung coasters to land where they may. It turns out this is not all she throws. Despite their many differences, they married and settled in Manhattan with their sheepdog. Gainfully employed and childless, they have a good life. For some reason, they invited their respective families to join them at their rental houses, but not at the same time. The narrative spans two separate vacations, one with each family.
During both vacations we see that there are huge cultural differences that seem to magnify no matter which set of in-laws the couple vacations with. Combine that with the fraught relations Keru and Nate personally have with their families and we have the potential for a powder keg. Add to the mix some unexpected characters who come with their idiosyncrasies and serious questions arise for the couple.
Skillfully told and insightful, the author gives readers a front row seat into the lives of a family who is struggling to be true to themselves and trying to cope with each other's family as well as their own. Told in a wry and witty manner, RENTAL HOUSE is well worth reading.
From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations
Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife.
Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?
With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular” style (People) and “hilarious deadpan that recalls Gish Jen and Nora Ephron” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Weike Wang offers a portrait of family that is equally witty, incisive, and tender.
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