Waylaid

by Ed Lin

176pp | 2002 | Paperback | ISBN 9781885030320

Waylaid is the story of a Chinese American boy struggling to grow up amidst the drudgery and sexual innuendo of his parent¹s sleazy motel on the Jersey Shore. Conscripted into the family business, the protagonist spends his summer days and after-school hours renting out rooms to johns and hookers, lonely old men, and families whose homes have been repossessed. He becomes obsessed with losing his virginity, a preoccupation whose very intensity reflects a society that delivers sex as a distraction from despair. In its blackly humorous exploration of immigrant dreams and working class realities, Waylaid is a switchblade in the gut to stories of overachievement and success that ignore the human cost.

praise

“Wonderful… In Waylaid, Lin has crafted an unforgettable story from the rundown landscapes of the New Jersey Shore and from the ambivalant geographies of his young narrator’s heart… A coming-of-age novel that is both piercing and tender… Lin is an astonishing talent.”
— Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“Ed Lin has wrought an Asian American Holden Caulfield, whose view from his tightly conscripted life of working at his parents’ motel is to get laid without getting fucked. No model minority success here, this is the harsh universe of working class immigrants, a nether world that both fascinates and repels.”
— Helen Zia

“There’s great humor here, and great storytelling. What Ed does best is what only great writers do – he tells the truth. I’m a fan for life.”
— Wayne Kramer, co-founder of MC5 and Mad for the Racket