"They were all friends, if one defined friendship as the natural occurrence between people who, after colliding for decades, have finally eroded enough to fit together."

"Friendship is simply what happens when there's too much debt to be repaid."

Number One Chinese Restaurant follows a host of characters, mostly first-generation Chinese immigrants that together make up the Beijing Duck House, an outwardly friendly and dated restaurant in Maryland, US. After a disaster strikes the Duck House, the characters are forced to examine their relationship with their work or more importantly their relationships with each other. Though serious and occasionally dark, I found the book to be full of endearing absurdities, heartfelt moments and a bit of humor.

Number One Chinese Restaurant was at the top of my list of most anticipated releases of 2018, it checks a lot of my boxes. Multiple perspectives, check. Troubled family relationships, check. First generation immigrant characters, check. "Darkly funny", check. Perhaps because of my absurdly high expectations this wasn't a total hit for me. While reading it was easy to keep turning pages and I found myself totally engaged but as soon as I put it down I wasn't pulled to pick it back up. For the first half I just wasn't invested enough in the characters to feel the need to see their story through.

Some people might have a hard time with the characters being unlikeable but I think that that was one of the author's greatest strengths. Lillian Li's craft of individualistic and hyper-realistic characters is what made this book for me. I found each character to be strikingly "themselves" and their decisions and relationships with each other very believable. The characters alone were able to build an immersive reading experience (when the descriptions in the writing at times left something to be desired) and gave fascinating glance into the world of restaurant workers and owners, something I knew nearly nothing about. Through such strong characters I think the Author was able to explore some of the more nuanced themes found in first generation stories beautifully without it feeling forced or as though the characters are vehicles for the themes themselves. Ultimately, I thought that the characters were a superb example of immutability of a person or a personality and in doing so was able to well highlight the growth in the characters when it was there. By the end I was grateful for the epilogue to get a glimpse in to where Johnny, Nan and Ah-Jack are now and see just a little longer how they are doing.

This story could have taken place at any restaurant. Because of how the work ebbs and flows, all restaurants become little integrated families. This one also involves heredity, feelings of familial inferiority and responsibility, and how American born children of immigrants differ from their parents in many ways. The story was enjoyable but I never felt drawn in to the individual characters. Perhaps there were too many to feel like I got to know any of them very well. I will admit, however, that I did end up needing Chinese food while reading this book!

I could not get invested in this book. I just felt like it rambled and I could not become invested in the characters. I will not post any reviews on any sites.

I received this book as a advanced copy from NetGalley. I wish I could give a positive review to my first NetGalley read but unfortunately, this was a tedious book about despicable people having problems. This book is about the owner and staff of a small Chinese restaurant in Maryland. It jumps between perspectives of different characters involved, never leaving you quite sure who's head you are in. I found very few redeeming qualities in any of these characters. The point of this book was for all of them to discover that are not very good people and most of them did not even do that. The descriptions often left me nauseous, even though I generally have a thick stomach. It was hard to tell between characters, especially with 3 mains being named John, Jimmy, and Jack. I did make it to the end, but only because I felt I owed the publisher and NetGalley that much.

Thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Lillian Li for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the story of the Beijing Duck House - a family-owned and operated restaurant in Maryland - and the family and employees involved. There is lots of family drama - two brothers both fighting and helping each other out, mothers who don't always know the best thing to do for their children, debts to others, love interests, loyalty in many different fashions.

Chinese restaurants in particular are such family-driven establishments and it was interesting to delve more into the dynamics. However, while I typically love quirky family dramas this one never quite kept my interest as much as I hoped.

“’I’m just family!’ Jimmy shouted at his brother’s retreating back.
“’Exactly,’ came his answer, already muffled by the growing distance.”

Lillian Li’s debut novel , a tale of intra-family rivalry, intrigue, and torn loyalties is a barn burner; it captured my attention at the beginning, made me laugh out loud in the first chapter, and it never flagged. Many thanks go to Net Galley and Henry Holt Company, from whom I received a review copy in exchange for this honest review. Don’t let yourself miss this one. It will be available to the public Tuesday, June 19, 2018.

The book opens with bitter scheming on the part of Jimmy, one of two brothers that fall heir to the family restaurant after their father passes away. Jimmy has waited for the old man to die so that he could run the restaurant his own way. The Duck House serves greasy, cheap Chinese food, and he is sure he can do better. He craves elegance, a superior menu with superior ingredients. He wants renown, and he doesn’t want his brother Johnny to have one thing to do with it.

Johnny’s in China. Johnny runs the business end of the restaurant, and he takes care of the front of the house. He’ll be back to Maryland in a heartbeat, though, when the Duck House burns down.

Li does a masterful job of introducing a large cast of characters and developing several of them; although at the outset the story appears to be primarily about the brothers, the camera pans out and we meet a host of others involved in one way or another with the restaurant. There are the Honduran workers that are referred to by the Chinese restaurant owners and their children as ‘the amigos’, and we see the way they are dismissed by those higher up, even when it is they that pull Jimmy from a burning building. There’s a bittersweet love triangle involving Nan and Ah-Jack, who work in the restaurant, and Michelle, Ah-Jack’s estranged wife, but it’s handled deftly and with such swift pacing and sterling character development that it never becomes a soap opera. Meanwhile Nan’s unhappy teenage son, Pat, pulls at her loyalties, and she is torn between him and Ah-Jack in a way that has to look familiar to almost every mother that sees it in one way or another. But the most fascinating character by far, hidden in the recesses of her home, is the sons’ widowed mother, Feng Fui, who serves as a powerful reminder not to underestimate senior citizens.

Li is one of the most exciting, entertaining new voices in fiction since the Y2K, and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Gan bei!

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is certainly different. Like many other reviewers have commented, it is a slow burn to get into and few of the characters are likable. However you do get caught up in the web they weave, and I eventually became motivated to see it through to the end, and found it in an interesting journey. Not your typical restaurant novel

It's hard to finish a book when you don't like any of the characters and you can't 100% tell what their relationship is with one another even half way though the book. Had potential but didn't make it.

Summary:

Welcome to The Beijing Duck, good comfortable food served by good comfortable people. One man’s dream and legacy, another’s trap. One woman’s job for thirty years as she pines for the unattainable, one man’s escape and stage. Each staffer and family member has a secret, desire or pain that floats through them as they race through the fast paced restaurant life.

One night will bring down disaster, break alliances and form new ones. When the dust settles, who will be strong enough to stand and will their lives ever be the same?

My thoughts:

This was exactly the type of book I adore. You have a tight community of dysfunctional and interesting souls thrown together by a common goal- keeping their jobs/ restaurant going. Some of these staffers have watched the men that are now boss grow up. It’s an odd mix of teasing and respect, loyalty and disdain. I loved Nan, the hard working mother trying to figure out how to help the son that is spiraling out of control while having been in love with the married ah-Jack since her first restaurant job. Jack was an interesting character as well, the jokester and clown that is loyal to a point to both his wife Michelle and the friend he can’t admit he also loves. When Michelle becomes increasingly sick he returns at 70 to serving dishes trying to pay the bills, but missing the moments Michelle needs him for. Pat is also interesting and multifaceted. At first glance you see a seventeen year old thug, no respect for anyone. At the same time pieces of him yearn for both his mother who he doesn’t know how to reach and for the girl that he likes way too much.

Each character was well developed and intensely interesting, easy to grow close to and care about. The premise was also really interesting. I loved the ambition of one brother, the almost cloying loyalty of the other. I loved how each one saw something different in their brother than they saw in themselves. There’s a lot of feelings here. Love, loyalty, betrayal, ambition, pain and redemption all served with the specialty duck. Fast paced, sometimes more like a train wreck than a smooth drive, this is one book you won’t be able to put down. I adored it! Five stars all the way.
On the adult content scale, there’s language, sexual content, and substance abuse. I would say this is for older teens and adults. Let’s give it a six.

I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co. in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

Sometimes classifying a book can become difficult as is the case with Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant – at least beyond the ethnicity!
Humor shows up immediately in the first few lines, “The waiters were singing “Happy Birthday” in Chinese. All fifteen of them had crowded around the party table, clapping their hands. Not a single one could find the tune.” The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland has become a tradition in the community.
Family dynamics come into play as younger son Jimmy aspires to open the Beijing Glory, a fancier restaurant than the down-to-earth restaurant built by his father where the staff has become like family over the years but he must maneuver around his older brother Johnny who controls the family finances. Employees and the Han family have fought, worked, and grown old together. The widowed mother Feng Fei seems powerless, likely to have her house sold out from under her while the brothers put her in a home, or is she? Then there is Nan, the duck slicer, with her own problems trying to keep her son Pat out of trouble.
Mystery comes into play with Uncle Pang, who is not a relative, with the big money. How much do control does he have and how honest is he? And who is really responsible for the arson that burns down the Duck House?
Maybe it’s doesn’t need a category except the obvious one of a Chinese family making a start with what they know best in a new world with human nature stirring the pot. After all, as Jimmy thought in the midst of problems of opening the new restaurant, “The trouble with life was that life needed trouble.”
Lillian Li captures a Chinese time and place in her book and human quirks that transcend culture.

Number One Chinese Restaurant left me craving some dim sum and greater character development. In suburban Maryland, Jimmy Han hopes to shed his father’s legacy and start his own fancier restaurant, at any cost. The restaurant is full of the usual suspects in any family-run business: hangers on, shady characters, and plenty of nepotism.

This book fell flat for me, and exactly zero of the characters were likable. By the end, I found that I was rooting against all of the characters and hoping to just finish the book, place an order for Chinese carry out and move on.

I just didn't "get" this book; the storyline didn't engage me. I did like the descriptions of food, though.

The restaurant in this novel is bursting with complicated family dynamics and secrets. Jimmy and the temporarily overseas Johnny are carrying on the somewhat esteemed Peking Duck spot that was their late father’s creation. A panoply of troublesome or bothersome relatives surround them as Jimmy tries his luck with restaurant of his own. I wasn’t so drawn in by the characters as they struggled with some sudden changes. Thanks, netgalley, for the chance to read an advance copy of this novel.

Number One Chinese Restaurant is heavily character driven in the best way. Because we can see the thoughts and dreams of all the characters it is almost looking behind all these windows. There are multiple layers of love stories, families, and revenge. The protagonists are lively and dynamic. They take you into their lives and you quickly begin to understand their desires and fears.

I absolutely love books that use food as the nucleus for deeper issues. This book centers around a Chinese restaurant (I mean, obviously) but expands to the lives of the people involved in a way that will make you approach your next delivery order a bit differently. The psychological drama within each character and between the characters are woven among meals, preparing and eating them. It was a delightful, informational novel and you should go read it too.

I like going out to eat and trying new places, I love to cook and was a waitress during my 20's , so I was intrigued by the description of this book.
This somewhat depressing family saga about the owners of a Chinese restaurant and their employees was well written, but more gritty and less funny than expected.
I would have liked to have read more about the kitchen, the food and it's preparation - my favorite part was when Jimmy worked in the kitchen of an upscale seafood restaurant.

Set in a family-owned and operated Chinese restaurant in Rockville, Maryland called the Duck House this is the story of the Han family and their employees. The eldest son, Jimmy, dreams of scuttling the Duck House and opening a new, more modern, lavish resturant called the Beijing Glory. He ends up paying his godfather to burn it down so he can collect the insurance money. The plan escalates from there with characters running in and out.

It’s told at a breakneck, frenetic pace, often switching perspectives, time, and setting without warning. I found the story hard to follow and one character nearly indistinguishable from the next. For example, Jimmy’s brother’s name is Johnny and I struggled to keep them straight.

Additionally, the writing keeps the reader at surface level most of the time. We see the characters moving through the plot but not why they are motivated to do so. I didn’t like or care about any of the not-particularly-interesting characters. They don’t seem to like each other much either, constantly treating each other poorly and even meanly throughout the story. They were all angry, disappointed, and disillusioned miserable people and I didn’t much enjoy spending time with them.

Overall, I struggled through the book, was mostly bored with it, and wouldn’t recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this book but something about it just didn’t click with me. I felt like the beginning was a little jarring and it took a while to orient myself and get into the story. I liked the second half better than the first, though, and I think this could very well be someone else’s cup of tea- if you generally like “literary fiction” I think it’s worth a try!

The waiters and kitchen staff and chaos, fighting, and love of working in a Cinese restaurant in Maryland. They all want to move on to something else, but can't seem to leave. Multi-generational fun new novel well worth reading,

The Beijing Duck House is the Han family restaurant and the centerpiece of this novel about a dysfunctional family. Although dysfunction reigns humor is never far from the page and the crazy mysterious Uncle Pang is a shadowy gangster type who seemingly has his hand in everything as the ultimate puppet master. Bobby Han is the patriarch of the family and his dream of a Chinese restaurant in America comes to fruition in Rockville, MD. Bobby has two sons, Jimmy and Johnny who have two very different ideas about furthering the reach and influence of the Beijing Duck House while keeping the Han family name in high esteem in the MD area.

Jimmy wants out, he has worked in the family business since he was a teen and is now known as Little Boss. He wants to implement his own vision and agenda and wants his own restaurant. Johnny is more interested in being seen and recognized as a VIP, he doesn’t have much tolerance for the nuts and bolts aspect of running a restaurant. Jimmy plots his moves which goes astray, and the ensuing fallout threatens to turn the family completely apart.

This all leads to a raucous conclusion to a novel that has exposed the reader to a chaotic restaurant scene, Chinese family dynamics, including inter-generational conflict and astute witty observations concerning immigrant life as opposed to Native American life.

“Americans. They believed a strong marriage came from knowing their partner’s every shadowy thought. But it was knowing too much that killed love. A strong marriage came when the wedded stopped trying to plumb their partner’s depths. Life became easier when one passed the years with an amiable stranger and not a mirror that reflected back all of one’s flaws.”

There are themes that are universal across cultures, especially dealing with immigrant experiences. A lot going on in this novel that is always busy and those tidbits of wittiness buttress the fast paced doings of the Han family along with their network of restaurant associates and customers. And, of course the ever present Uncle Pang keeps this story high above the boredom line. 3.5⭐️ A big thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt&Co. for an advanced DRC. Book available June 19, 2018