American Knees

"American Knees (a takeoff on the old schoolyard song, 'Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees. . .') is the story of how Raymond Ding, a politically correct man with a politically incorrect sense of humor, falls into, and out of, love with newspaper photographer Aurora Crane. As Raymond and Aurora's story unfolds, Wong crafts some wonderfully telling and funny scenes of social relations in multicultural America."—Seattle Weekly

"Wong overturns the racial stereotypes perpetrated against Asians in this country, and he does so with humor to spare. . . . No one has more eloquently or joyfully asserted our belonging."—David Wong Louie, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Shawn Wong adds a funny, sexy chapter to Asian American literature. . . . A multi-cultural comedy that relentlessly lampoons the incidents and incidentals of modern Asian American life."—Julie Shiroishi, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"With American Knees, Wong constructs a fast-paced world of botched romances, sexual and racial stereotypes, and unfulfilled longing."—A. Magazine

"I cracked up reading Shawn Wong's witty, tender, wise, and sexy new novel. His lovable but ambivalent protagonist collides memorably with a cast of female characters who are a welcome change from the shrinking violets and silent martyrs we've come to expect from 'ethnic' literature. American Knees is contemporary to the bone – a highly entertaining, deftly written, provocative and moving work of fiction."—Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters