Last Night at the Telegraph Club
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4.5 • 236 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the National Book Award
A New York Times Bestseller
"The queer romance we’ve been waiting for.”—Ms. Magazine
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Hopeful future rocket scientist Lily Hu is living in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s. She’s trying hard to make a good name for herself and her family as the Red Scare blazes through the U.S., adding a potent dose of paranoid xenophobia to the existing racism. She’s so used to suppressing her feelings that when a bewitching girl named Kath brings her to a secret lesbian bar, she’s overwhelmed by the experience of a welcoming world beyond her own loneliness—and we get to experience that with her. Lily’s relatable and complex feelings about love and family feel incredibly poignant, especially since her struggles are still relevant to this day. Last Night at the Telegraph Club blends the excitement of young love with the suppressive atmosphere of the Cold War era, which adds an extra layer of danger to this intoxicating YA romance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The year is 1954, and American-born Chinese 17-year-old Lily Hu, a rising senior at San Francisco's Galileo High School, discovers the existence of the Telegraph Club nightclub by chance: via an ad in the Chronicle featuring a Male Impersonator. Lily secretly gathers photos of women with masculine qualities; she's drawn toward "unfeminine" clothing and interests such as chemistry, engines, and space. Dawning recognition of her lesbianism comes alongside a budding connection with Kathleen Miller, a white classmate. But openly exploring queerness isn't an option—not with her mother touting "respectability," and society's limited perception of Chinese-Americanness as either "China doll" or "real American"-adjacent, and especially not amid McCarthyism—during which Chinese people, including those within Lily's close Chinatown community, are targeted as Communist sympathizers. As Lily falls deeper in love, though, she must work to balance the shifting elements of her identity with a landscape of sociopolitical turmoil that will resonate with contemporary readers. Lo incorporates Chinese food and language, appending explanatory footnotes for romanized Cantonese and Mandarin terms and characters. Smoothly referencing cultural touchstones and places with historic Chinese American significance, Lo conjures 1950s San Francisco adeptly while transcending historicity through a sincere exploration of identity and love. Back matter includes an author's note explaining Lo's personal connection to the story. Ages 14–up.
Customer Reviews
10/10
Amazing....
Amazing concept, solid execution, unique premise
I almost felt like the universe put this book in my eyeline as if they finally read my mind.
I like to come up with stories and imagine fictional lives of Asian Americans living in this decade. Some kind of coming of age movie dedicated to showing the nuance of race, culture and queer identity. How characters have to face the diaspora of confronting separate identities, and learning to grow and mature through tumultuous environments. How they have to face the clash of familial expectations.
This book has captured that kind of nuance, certainly not the degree I would have liked, but it’s so rare to find these kinds of stories, I’m willing to forgive the minor flaws. So, this will be a long, if not rambling, analysis:
The characters:
Lily reminds me of the kind of Chinese American character you don’t use often. Someone with genuine depth beyond being a diversity token, who grapples with being timid and reserved, having to tamper down her own desires and ambitions, to supplicate to the needs of others. Her overbearing mother, her dominating best friend and the expectations of her peers and environment. She’s smart and thinks for herself, and has ambitions beyond what most would expect of women during this time. But the defining flaw I loved about her, was her fear. She’s scared to express herself, she’s scared of the repercussions and she feels the need to stay within a bubble. Oftentimes, she reprimands herself for straying beyond “a good Chinese girl” and wanting to deviate beyond that established identity. And that characteristic in itself was so real and relatable. I’m sure, like many of us reading the book, we can identify with Lily’s inner turmoil, and have that kind of experience fully realized and detailed. Lo’s writing style is easily readable, casual and simple. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and helps us connect fully with the characters.
Her parents, aunt and best friend Shirley, were all realistic as well. I did think the switch back and forth of POV was a bit jarring, and didn’t really do anything for the novel expect give us minor details for character motivations. Her mother and her relationship with Lily was very realistic. I could almost imagine the real conversation beneath the story, and if Ms. Lo drew any inspiration from her own life. The overbearing yet loving and slightly claustrophobic dynamic between mother and daughter, the inherent and subtle nuances was captured superbly.
Kath, the ally turned love interest, was serviceable. I understand the novel is mostly about Lily and her side, but I thought Kath lacked some dimension. She didn’t seem to have any noticeable flaws (and I’m not sure if this was intentional or not) and came across as a hodgepodge of personality quirks rather than a real person. She’s nerdy yet laid back, passes as tomboyish, and doesn’t seem to have much else. Maybe she’s meant to be written in a romanticized light? But if anything, it just made her pale in comparison to Lily’s development.
The plot was okay, although some parts felt like fat left untrimmed. The ending was pretty strong though, and I liked how “unresolved” some elements were, because it felt so much more realistic. The fact her parents still hadn’t come around (and hadn’t automatically accepted their daughter-even after a few years) was very interesting. I liked how it wasn’t perfect, and Lily and Kath were just living their lives, and trying to hold onto each other through it all.
Overall, this was a really strong book. I enjoyed reading about such an unseen aspect of Chinese-American identity. There were parts of the book that truly spoke to me, and I have indefinitely highlighted lots of it. Hoping there might be a movie adaptation one day, this story could definitely work.
3.5/5
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