Fiction Review: You Are Here

One of the books I read for Booktopia, the event I attended last weekend in Vermont, was You Are Here, a novel by Karin Lin-Greenberg that I listened to on audio. The author has written two short story collections and won numerous awards for her stories, but this is her first novel. I thoroughly enjoyed this warm, funny, moving story of a disparate group of people whose paths all cross in a suburban mall.

Tina is a Chinese-American hair stylist who works (often alone) in the mall's hair salon. She's the single mother of an inquisitive nine-year-old boy named Jackson who sweeps up hair in the salon and wants to know who his father was. Tina secretly watches YouTube videos about drawing and painting and wishes she could have pursued a career as an artist, though that wouldn't pay the bills. Jackson, protecting his mother as she protects him, secretly watches videos of magicians and illusionists and dreams of becoming one. He's gotten to know a sixteen-year-old girl named Maria, who works in the food court, dressed as a chicken, though Maria wants to be an actress and hopes to get the lead role (ironically, Maria in West Side Story) in her high school play. Jackson is planning to do a magic show for his school's talent show and wants Maria to be his beautiful assistant. Ro is an elderly woman who gets her hair done by Tina at the salon each week. She's lonely since her husband's death and is very fond of Jackson. A few stores away is a bookstore where Kevin works. Kevin lives in a tiny house in his in-law's backyard, next-door to Ro, along with his wife and their twins. Kevin is white and his wife is Black, and he thinks that Ro is a racist. Ro thinks Kevin is lazy, though Kevin does dream of finishing his PhD and being successful--he just doesn't know what he should do. All of these characters are concerned because of rumors that the mall, which is usually mostly empty, will soon be shut down.

This is a slice of life novel, as these very different people all meet and interact at the mall (and at home, too, for some of them). They each have private secrets and dreams and want something better for themselves than where they are now. Ro is looking back more than looking forward, with memories and regrets, though she has an opinion about everyone. While this is a very character-driven novel about ordinary people, there is also a propelling plot, with a horrible trauma that occurs at the mall and affects every one of them. Lin-Greenberg is an absolute genius at character development, so the reader gets to know each of the characters intimately through their chapters and perspectives. Her dialogue is lively, realistic, and often funny, and this novel was a joy to listen to on audio, though it does tackle some difficult topics. My mother and I agreed that this was one of our favorites of the Booktopia selections this year.

304 pages, Counterpoint, LLC

HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - Y

Diversity Challenge

 

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