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Waylaid Paperback – May 2, 2002

by Ed Lin (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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Waylaid is the story of a Chinese American boy who struggles to grow up in the grip of an overcharged sexual environment. With a daily routine that involves renting out rooms to johns and hookers at his parents' sleazy hotel, the narrator loses his grip on concepts of friendship, family and childhood. As he pursues his all-consuming quest to lose his virginity, issues of race, class and sex cripple his sense of self-worth. It is a story told with a Gen-X-style bleak humor that doesn't pander to conventional notions of immigrant narrative. Waylaid doesn't cut a wide swath through Asian American literature. It is a switchblade in the gut to stories of over-achievement and success in America that ignore the human cost.
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  1. Print length
    200 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Kaya/Muae
  4. Publication date
    May 2, 2002
  5. Dimensions
    4.36 x 0.43 x 6.88 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1885030320
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1885030320
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The unnamed narrator of Lin's brilliant debut is the 12-year-old son of Taiwanese immigrant parents who own a rundown motel on the New Jersey coast. Catering to impecunious old men in the winter, to higher-paying "Bennys" (stands for Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, and New York--these customers' hometowns) in the summer, and to hookers' johns year-round, it is no place to grow up in, but it is what his parents have chosen to succeed in, in America. The boy works the front desk and does chores whenever he isn't in school or asleep. Newly postpubescent, big for his age, and egged on by a friendly Benny ("Girls were all over me when I was like eight," he boasts), the boy makes getting laid his prime objective between Benny seasons. As he progresses toward his goal, Lin carefully reveals, through him, what making it in America can entail for even bright, ambitious newcomers. Awash in a sea of stupidity and venality, the boy, neither stupid nor venal, seems bent on more than hauling his ashes, and after his father suffers a stroke, and relatives come from Taiwan to keep the motel afloat, he looks like a prevailer, not just a survivor. Lin's unsentimental, purely realist--not naturalist, not socialist, not postmodernist--novel raises hopes that American fiction may yet grow up. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Ed Lin. . .has the eye and wit of a pro....Waylaid will make you laugh and cringe. -- Playboy, October

The novel may work for fans of Suburban Bleak films like "Buffalo 66." -- San Francisco Chronicle, September 15, 2002

Waylaid is like a nihilistic -- but enjoyable -- detour on a journey from nothing to nowhere. -- Time Asia Magazine, September 16, 2002

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kaya/Muae (May 2, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 200 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1885030320
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1885030320
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.36 x 0.43 x 6.88 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

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Ed Lin

Ed Lin

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I'm a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent. My current mystery series is set at a night-market stand in contemporary Taipei, and includes the books Ghost Month, Incensed, and 99 Ways to Die. It's published by the amazing folks at Soho Crime. I also have an older crime series set in Manhattan's Chinatown in 1976 and that includes the books This Is a Bust, Snakes Can't Run, and One Red Bastard. My first book is a non-mystery, a dirty "literary" book titled Waylaid that was published way back in 2002.

I'm the first author to have won three Asian American Literary Awards. I have a degree in mining engineering from Columbia University and a master's in journalism, also from Columbia. I have a day job editing financial news. I live in New York with my incredible wife, the actress Cindy Cheung, and our son.

I'm on Twitter (@RobertChow) and Instagram (@edlinforpresident), and my personal site is www.edlinforpresident.com.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Yang Zhao
5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommend, raw, good!!!
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
I discovered this NYC based Taiwanese American author since the summer of 2016 and this is the 4th book I've read. I've became well adapted to Ed's writing style in the other books written after this HIT debut. I can see how his style has matured in later works but by far I like this book the most. I'm a Charles Bukowski fan especially in his alternate personality Henry Chinaski adventures book series for its fast paced scenes and raw language and hyper realistic. Waylaid is totally cutting edge in its rawness powered by explicit thoughts of a growing teenage 1st generation Chinese American boy struggling with ignroant American racism, the class of cultures, and the raging hormone of a sexually active boy trying to figure out life. I love the way the book ended and human kindness will eventually prevail even during our darkest hour. It's amazing how the author can make the boring motel lifestyle into a book packed with fast paced actions and told story in hyper realism with rawest language. I highly recommend this book.
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Gail R. Gilbert
4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult page-turner
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2012
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While I agree with the reviewers, I am compelled to mention that the paperback edition I bought is PHYSICALLY the most difficult book I have ever read! The cover stock is so stiff and the margins in the spine-side of the pages are so narrow that I am using muscles in my hand that I didn't know I had - just to keep the book open and view all of the print. It's the most aggravating exercise and diminishes any enjoyment I might have in reading the book. I have actually considered giving up. I hope for the sake of others that mine is the only flawed copy.
One person found this helpful
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veit
5.0 out of 5 stars Waylaid comes closer
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2007
Waylaid by Ed Lin is the antithesis of the typical (or stereotypical) Asian-American account of academic or personal success in America. Ed Lin describes a different slice of Asian-America - one told through the eyes of a twelve year old Taiwanese American whose parents own and inhabit a drab roadside motel in a nameless section of Jersey. If Los Angeles and New York are the epicenters of East Asian success, Ed Lin's New Jersey is the hushed corner of Americana where an alternative Asian saga unfolds.

The moldy motel where our narrator relates his experience is populated by a randy cast of characters: hookers and johns, transient war veterans and overbearing Asian mothers. The narrator's preoccupation with losing his virginity amidst the comings and goings of the motel's sexual clientele revealed a side of my own self which identified with the trappings of obsession. Much like him, the exposure to sexual imagery turned me on at an early age to a decidedly adult subject.

After reading Lin's gorgeous piece of fiction, the greatest comfort is in the knowledge that we understand each other: both of us grew up in the shadow of Asian American stardom.
One person found this helpful
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Mark Bosko
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2018
Not compelling reading but interesting none the less.
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P. M.
4.0 out of 5 stars Crummy motel setting for losing your virginity
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2017
Verified Purchase
Definitely not your average coming of age story. It is narrated by a 12 year Chinese American boy who is tasked with helping to run his parents motel at the Jersey shore (think Asbury Park, not Cape May) in the early 80's and who is determined to lose his virginity.
The motel is a complete dump, that other than during the summer, basically rents rooms by the hour.
The story is very crude, and also very funny.
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icujock
5.0 out of 5 stars coming of age tragicomically!
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2008
Awesome book. I read it about 2-3 years ago.
every self respecting 2nd gen asian american(read chinese!) kid should read this book. Its funny and yet, in many ways its a little sad. The way Ed has pulled this book through is amazing.
I need to read his latest book.
5 stars.
One person found this helpful
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Thomas Willard
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic bildungsroman
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2005
This novel of a young Chinese American is a classic bildungsroman in the Bukowski "Ham on Rye" sense. America in the 70' and 80's suffered from a dilapidated post-vietnam depression that is captured very accurately here. You can see the paint rotting off the wood in Lin's world. His world is gritty, reminding me of the LA suburb that Bukowski describes and the contstant excess he was faced with as well. He is faced with prostitutes on a daily basis. Older men befriend him and treat him like an adult; only to fall to vice and the police later on. In some ways, this book is a mirror reflecting so many struggles people face in pulling themselves from the mediocrity or our childhood years.
2 people found this helpful
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T. Rector
2.0 out of 5 stars Juvenile on all levels
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2019
Verified Purchase
I chose this book based on a recommendation in the NYTimes. After reading it I have no idea how or why it was even reviewed. Juvenile writing, plot, and execution. I'm embarrassed to have selected it for our book club. Skip it.
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