Write what you know, they say. For Los Altos author Kathy Wang, that’s Silicon Valley and the Chinese-American experience. The former served as the backdrop for the latter in her 2018 debut work, “Family Trust,” a novel that had readers flipping pages madly to see how this drama would unfold — all while chortling over Wang’s wry takedowns of our tech culture.
Q: You went from Silicon Valley product manager to author with a HarperCollins book deal. Wow. What’s your writing background?
A: I don’t have one! Or at least not in the traditional sense — MFA, etc. I’d always loved reading though, like all authors. I wrote a lot of emails and requirements documents in my job, if that counts.
Q: “Family Trust” got ink in publications as varied as The Sunday Times of Britain, PopSugar, AARP and Southern Living. Why is the appeal so broad?
A: I don’t know, honestly — and in publishing sometimes you just get lucky and your book receives a lot of PR, and it kind of builds upon itself. The novel does span generations, and it’s multi-POV, so there’s a variety of ages in there.
Q: You manage to inhabit such disparate, deeply layered personalities in the book. Fred is a desperate climber in the VC world. Linda is an insightful, deliciously catty woman in her 70s. How do you get into their heads?
A: Linda is like countless Chinese grandmas/mothers I’ve met over my lifetime, and I feel I know this character so well that I could write them in any sort of scenarios — shopping at Ranch 99, going on a cruise, being forced to endure an overly long school recital. As for Fred, I’ll first caveat that he is my personal favorite in the book and I crafted him with a lot of love. I did attend Harvard Business School and live on the Peninsula and those two alone should qualify me as an expert on this character trope.
Q: Thinly disguised descriptions of Bay Area locales — a Michelin-starred restaurant, a not-so-tony town — pop up on virtually every page. How do people respond to those?
A: Generally, they like them! The locals, at least. They always tell me they get a kick out of recognizing the places. I did receive a message from a reader in the Midwest who read it and said, “Is the Bay Area really like this? Because if so, it’s WEIRD.”
Q: What’s next? Do you have a second novel in the works?
A: I do! You should expect to see it out in late 2021. Again, Silicon Valley will be the setting. I keep saying I’m going to do someplace different, but there’s so much more to cover.
5 BOOK PICKS FROM WANG
“This Is How We Do It” by Matt Lamothe: My favorite children’s book to give as a gift. It follows the lives of seven real children around the world, showing you how they eat, learn, play and sleep. My kids love it, too. We read it all the time. It’s gorgeous.
“The Bitch in the House” by Cathi Hanauer: A series of essays about women coming upon that phase of their lives when they’re balancing careers and hobbies and partners and motherhood — and how they become yup, the Bitch In The House. P.S. There’s a “sequel,” published a few years back, called “The Bitch Is Back.”
“Listen to the Marriage” by John Osborne: One of the best portrayals of marriage I’ve ever read. I love this, and it’s the sort of book that multiple generations would likely enjoy. Osborne is a Bay Area native who lives in San Francisco.
“If You Leave Me” by Crystal Hana Kim: A gorgeous multi-generational family saga — my favorite kind — set in Korea. Kim is a beautiful, but never overly flowery, writer and the characters are completely real.
“Children of Time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky: I’m not a sci-fi devotee, but this was one of my best reads this year so far. The story is incredible, striking the perfect balance between high concept and characters and plot. Tchaikovsky is a wonderful writer.