Holding Pattern
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION "5 UNDER 35" HONOREE
“There is so much heart in these pages, so much wisdom on how we love. This book had me in its orbit, from beginning to end.” – Weike Wang, author of Joan is Okay
Holding Pattern. Noun.
1. A state of suspended progress.
2. The awkward way your mother tries to hug you now that you live with her. Again.
Kathleen Cheng has blown up her life. She’s gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she’s back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what’s next.
To her surprise, her mother isn’t the same person Kathleen remembers. No longer depressed or desperate to return to China, the new Marissa Cheng is sporty, perky, and has been transformed by love. Kathleen thought she’d be planning her own wedding, but instead finds herself helping her mother plan hers—to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur.
Grasping for direction, Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. While she negotiates new ideas about intimacy and connection, an unforeseen attachment to someone at work pushes her to rethink her relationships—especially the one with Marissa. Will they succeed in seeing each other anew, adult to adult?
As they peel back the layers of their history—the old wounds, cultural barriers, and complex affection—they must come to a new understanding of how they can propel each other forward, and what they’ve done to hold each other back. Brilliantly observant, tender, and warm, Holding Pattern is a hopeful novel about immigration and belonging, mother-daughter relationships, and the many ways we learn to hold each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman struggles to come to terms with her mother's newfound happiness while her own life falls apart in Xie's funny and sharp debut. Kathleen Cheng has just been dumped by her boyfriend, prompting her to leave her graduate psychology program at Johns Hopkins and return home to her mother's house in California. On impulse, she takes a job as a "cuddle provider," providing clients with nonsexual touching. Meanwhile, her mother, Marissa, who emigrated with Kathleen from Shanghai when she was an infant and became a heavy drinker after divorcing her father, is now sober and on the verge of marrying a tech tycoon. As Kathleen puts together a Vegas bachelorette weekend for Marissa, crosses a boundary or two with a client, and deals with the fact that her high school boyfriend is now dating her best friend, she slowly begins to find a new path for herself. Xie's strong character work keeps the narrative bubbling along on its episodic arc, and her affectionate study of the ways Kathleen and Marissa madden and inspire each other adds depth. This author is off to a stellar start.
