Review 548: Rental House

Rental House by Weike Wang
My rating: 3.25 of 5 stars


A relatively short book about a marriage, about navigating life and in-laws. We meet them when they meet each other, their last year in college. Keru comes from an immigrant family from China, an only child. While Nate is from a poor white family he calls himself white trash. He amazed his family by getting a full scholarship into this ivy league school, it was unexpected.

Both sets of parents, particularly the mother’s have the same sort of discussions of most families: when will you have kids, when will you visit, why can’t you live closer to me? The issue of will they have kids comes up between Nate and Keru several times. Instead of child they have a dog which is a character in the book as well, Mantou.

A few thorny issues are here in the book, such as race, but this and political type issues are raised it felt very natural. It was pushed into the story, but part of what life is about.

 
The book is split into two parts, with a very short three-page interlude between. There are some paragraph breaks, but no chapters.

I did have a copy of the print book, but I listened to the audiobook. I liked the way the narrator stressed some of the words and sentences. Not sure I would have print read it in the same way, so it added another dimension to the story.