+ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 23

HOW DOES Afamily find its footing after it
leaves home for good? For the Chengs,
who have immigrated from China, their
new life in Plano, Texas, is rendered in a
series of quick brush strokes, as if in a Ray-
mond Carver story. Houses on either side

of their street stand “like tombs.” A square
patch of lawn is filled with “fresh, breath-
ing sod.” Ordinary details of suburban
America conjure the past. When Jack, the
family’s elder son, smells the perfume of
the other 11-year-olds in his class, the
sweet scent reminds him of the candied
fruits — glazed strawberries, pineapple,
shanzha — he used to buy from street ven-
dors in Tianjin, sliding the sticky flesh off
the skewers with his teeth. Conversely, a
neighbor’s swimming pool at night signals

murder and intrigue to Jack — an impres-

sion perhaps made more from news stories

and television shows than from any kind of

lived experience.

It’s the mid-aughts and the Cheng family

has chosen to live in Plano for the good

schools, the low crime rate, the shopping

malls and the lighted tennis courts. Never

mind that the city was named the “suicide

capital” of America in the ’80s and suffered

from a heroin epidemic in the ’90s. Patty,

Jack’s mother, works for a tech company

near Dallas. Her husband, Liang, runs a

portrait photography studio. They moved

to the United States when Jack was little,

leaving him behind in Tianjin with Patty’s

parents, and finally sent for him when he

was 5. Jack’s younger sister, Annabel, was

born in Texas. Jack feels an instinctual

need to protect Annabel, in part because of

her sleepwalking; though she is too afraid

to sleep by herself, by night her uncon-

scious self ventures boldly out of the house,

discarding her slippers on other people’s

lawns. On these nights, Jack is the one who

wakes up to search for her and return her

to safety, never revealing this secret to his

parents.

As with many families, happiness is not

really a reliable state for the Chengs, even

if they do have security, Christmas

presents and food on the table. Seen from

the shifting perspectives of mother, father,

daughter and son — each fully, empathet-

ically rendered — their life in Plano feels

more makeshift, like a tedious kind of

limbo. Patty waits for hours in Dallas traf-

fic every day. They slowly upgrade from a

smaller house to a slightly bigger one.

Liang gets too drunk at his poker games

with the other Chinese fathers in the neigh-

borhood. Patty works late to avoid going

home. There is little communication in the

Cheng household — thoughts remain un-

spoken, and important questions are never

asked. This novel reminds us what it’s like

navigating a foreign country: Connections

feel frayed, self-doubt proliferates, the im-

migrant is never sure what is normal and

what isn’t. Jack’s own reassurances seem

halfhearted: “You have to walk through a

place as if you’ve known it all your life,” he

tells himself.

The tension steadily builds until a culmi-

nating event, and then slowly uncoils from

there. Jack and Annabel are complicit in a

horrible lie that, without giving anything

away here, brings shame to their father

and could have devastating consequences.

There’s much to admire in this debut novel.

Simon Han’s voice embodies the monotony

of feeling out of place, of realizing that life

continues to roll forward, even if all you ex-

perience is inertia. To survive this kind of

discord, the Chengs must first overcome

their sense of alienation — from one an-

other and from white America — and allow

room for forgiveness. 0

Sleepwalkers

In this debut novel, a Chinese immigrant keeps his American-born sister’s secrets.

By THESSALY LA FORCE

NIGHTS WHEN NOTHING HAPPENED
By Simon Han
262 pp. Riverhead. $26.

THESSALY LA FORCEis the features director at T
magazine.

Simon Han

PHOTOGRAPH BY MELISSA LUKENBAUGH

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