Ordinary Disasters: How I Stopped Being a Model Minority

This resonant blend of memoir and cultural criticism from Princeton English professor Cheng (Ornamentalism) sees the author dissecting stereotypes of Asian-American women while reflecting on her own relationships to them. In forceful essays organized into five sections, loosely themed around individual stereotypes (including “Mothers and Daughters” and “Beauty for the Unbeautiful”), Cheng gives close readings of films including Barbie and Crazy Rich Asians, breaks down an Alexander McQueen photo shoot by the photographer Nick Knight, and shares uncomfortable interactions with strangers about her interracial marriage to illustrate how Western society often—both intentionally and subconsciously—fetishizes Asian women, turning them into exotic objects rather than complicated individuals. Such fetishization, Cheng argues, causes the “ordinary disasters” of the book’s title, which she pushes against by shedding light on “the scripts we follow, and the scripts that follow us.” In rigorous but accessible prose, Cheng achieves a dazzling balance of curiosity and righteousness, cataloging the forces of racism and sexism that have attempted to strip her of her humanity while illustrating its durability. Readers will be wowed. (Sept.)