Meadow is coming up on 10 years living in New York, and he鈥檚 still adrift. His boyfriend ghosted him, his current residence is actually a housesitting gig, and his bartending job isn鈥檛 exactly filling his parents with pride. But this summer, strange things keep happening that will make or break him.
Right at the start of Mike Fu鈥檚 debut novel, 鈥淢asquerade,鈥� Meadow finds a strange book called 鈥淭he Masquerade" 鈥� written by someone with his same name.
In a rush to catch the plane to visit his parents in Shanghai, he stuffs the book in his bag. As he reads it, he finds uncanny parallels between his life and the novel.
Dream-like, 鈥淢asquerade鈥� begins somewhat aimless, introducing small mysteries and oddities that provide an unnerving background hum to an otherwise aimless plot. Like Meadow, we鈥檙e not sure where this is all going, or what is going to prove important later, though the occasional foreshadowing reminds us there鈥檚 a bigger issue at hand.
There鈥檚 a disappearance. There鈥檚 an apparent doppelganger, and maybe a ghost, too. And a strange mirror haunts Meadow鈥檚 dreams.
Jumping around in time, Fu slowly reveals Meadow鈥檚 history 鈥� largely revolving around existential dread quieted or swept aside by a constant stream of parties and benders.
In his 20s, Meadow throws himself into postgraduate studies to avoid the financial crash, and then into office work to avoid the self-important but pointless academic work, then into bartending when he finds office work just as pointless and soul-sucking. Now in his 30s, he鈥檚 reckoning with a sort of second coming-of-age.
鈥淢asquerade鈥� is a meandering, surreal, and unsettling search for identity as Meadow examines the masks he's worn throughout his adult life.
While various oddities turn out to be only mysterious 鈥� rather than actual mysteries 鈥� the novel's ending has a hopefulness and purpose that helps counterbalance the main character鈥檚 lack of agency throughout most of the story.
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AP book reviews:
Donna Edwards, The Associated Press
