REVIEW: Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu

Fiction. 272 pgs. Tin House Books. November 2021. 9781951142735.

Kyle Lucia Wu’s debut novel Win Me Something is a rare book that centers biracial Asian identity. It asks: What happens when you fit in nowhere? What do you do when no group seems to claim you? As a mixed-race person myself, it was so refreshing to see a book tackle these questions and to find a character that felt like me.

Win Me Something follows Willa Chen, a 24-year-old woman who’s landed a nannying job with the Adriens, a hyper-wealthy, White family who live in Tribeca. I’m so tired of stories about super-rich people, but this book distinguishes itself with its perspective, perfect details, and careful observations. Instead of centering the parents, Gabe and Nathalie Adrien, we get to know their world through Willa’s eyes, who subtly shows us the absurdity of their lives.

As the nanny, Willa occupies a funny, middle space, both belonging to their family and definitely not belonging at all. We get the sense that the only character that really cares for her is Bijou, the Adriens’ precocious 9-year-old daughter.

Bijou and Willa’s relationship is the beating heart of this book. It’s tender and often hilarious, but also tense and complicated. While Willa drifts—wishing people would talk to her, fantasizing about what her life could look like—Bijou is always doing, her life a perfectly organized wheel of activities: dance and violin and private Mandarin lessons.

The Mandarin lessons are particularly painful for Willa. She waits outside the door as Bijou studies her father’s language, a language she herself has never learned to speak. It’s disconnections like these that make the book shine: this is what wealth and loving parents can win you; two things Willa didn’t have growing up.

The book switches back and forth in time, moving from Willa’s experiences with the Adriens to her childhood in New Jersey. We learn that Willa comes from a broken home. Her parents (her mother White, her father Chinese) divorced, remarried, and had new children, leaving Willa feeling severed from both her mother and father.

It can feel like Willa is a bystander in her own book. She is always orbiting around other families, other worlds, watching and being watched, but never participating. For example, she decides to stay with the Adriens for Christmas because she doesn’t want to spend the holidays with her parents. But, despite the fact that she’s the one taking care of Bijou, it’s made very clear that she’s not part of Adriens’ family:

“And where are you from?” [Nathalie’s sister asks Willa during Christmas dinner.]

“New Jersey,” I said. But as I expected, they tilted their heads, phrasing the next part of their question with their furrowed brows. I knew what it meant, so I answered, ‘I’m half Chinese, if that’s what you mean.’”

Win Me Something is a study of small moments like these. Willa doesn’t feel exactly Chinese, but she’s also always reminded that she’s not White, her Americanness interrogated and tested. Seemingly minor incidents, like Nathalie asking Willa if she’s Korean because of her “nice skin”, add up and send the message: You eat with us, you live with us, but you’re not one of us. Wu doesn’t offer answers, but instead articulates how difficult it can be to find yourself when there isn’t language for what you are.

Even if you have nothing in common with Willa, there are so many entry points into this book. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt lonely, lost, and confused. But if you are like Willa—if you’re also mixed, if you’re also from a broken home—this book feels like a friend, telling you that she sees you for who you are. When there isn’t a category for you, Kyle Lucia Wu’s Win Me Something will claim you.