The Forest for the Trees - Li, Leslie

. .

Résumé :
Winner of the 2023 Big Moose Prize

A dark comedy about a clash of cultures and generations, a biracial coming-of-age story, and a psychological thriller about inherited trauma from an award-winning writer and d?but filmmaker. The year: 1959. The place: suburban New York City. When Chinese businessman Leo Lin loses his livelihood, his Caucasian American wife Margaret replaces him as sole breadwinner, creating a cascade of domestic crises that mirrors the Cold War raging between the United States and Communist China. Their oldest daughter Prudence elopes. Denise, the middle daughter, escapes into French literature and her prophetic imagination. Lorraine, the youngest, takes refuge in the Catholic Church and the Mickey Mouse Club.

But it is when Leo's fresh off the boat mother Nai-nai comes to live with them that the family unit threatens to rupture. The final blow is delivered by Leo's imperious father Guoxin who reveals a terrible secret that has kept him prisoner of his past and all the Lins hostage to his unremitting sense of guilt and shame. The Forest for the Trees alternates between chapters of a novel and scenes of its adaptation as a screenplay, offering the reader a hybrid experience as well as a liminal approach to understanding the book's all-too-human characters torn between family duty and personal desire....

Sommaire:

A clash of cultures, generations, and secrets in 1950s suburban New York.

When Chinese businessman Leo Lin loses his livelihood, his American wife Margaret steps in as the breadwinner, triggering a series of domestic crises that mirror the Cold War. Their daughter Prudence elopes, Denise escapes into French literature, and Lorraine finds solace in the Catholic Church. But the arrival of Leo's mother, Nai-nai, and a shocking revelation from his father, Guoxin, threaten to shatter the family. Can the Lins overcome their inherited trauma and find personal fulfillment?

The Forest for the Trees offers a hybrid experience, blending novel chapters with screenplay scenes. This darkly funny story explores family duty, personal desire, and the secrets that bind and break us.