Hypnotic, Heartbreaking, Hilarious
4 stars
Narrated in one long paragraph (intercut with two pieces written by the narrator), Chinatown is the extraordinary, dreamlike self-analysis and biography of a Vietnamese English teacher in France, exploring her entire life while stuck on a metro train. The narrative skips from era to era, country to country, circling her marriage and the Chinese-Vietnamese husband who vanished from her life a decade earlier. Really tremendous.