Red Envelope, by Atom Yang

[Ulysses]

Red Envelope
By Atom Yang
4 stars

Atom Yang (his real name) has written a completely charming little romance (really, a short story) deeply infused with a sense of family, a sense of humor, and the experience of growing up Chinese American.

Clint is a young adult, named for the Hollywood actor by his enthusiastic immigrant parents. His big noisy family still speaks Chinese at home, and celebrates the Lunar New Year with feasting, along with the traditional giving of red envelopes of cash by the married adults to the children.

This year, however, Clint is anxious, because Weaver is coming back from China. Weaver is not Chinese (even though he speaks it). He’s a tall blond surfer boy who long ago was all but adopted into Clint’s family, especially since he was thrown out of his own home by his super-religious parents.

Clint loves Weaver, but there’s a problem. Not only does his family not know that he’s gay; but Weaver went off to China a year ago and has cut off all communication since. As Clint makes his mapo tofu for the family feast, he frets about what was and what might be.

And that, more or less, is that. Yang writes his narrative expertly and gracefully, filling it with little comic moments that demonstrate the close bonds among the various family members. Without over-telling, we learn a lot about this family, and we get a very strong sense of who Clint is. We never learn what he does for a living, or even his family’s last name: but none of that matters. What we see is his heart, and how those around him care for his heart, even if he doesn’t quite see it himself.

I hope Atom Yang keeps writing, because I want to keep reading.