Days of Distraction - by Alexandra Chang (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Startlingly original and deeply moving.... Chang here establishes herself as one of the most important of the new generation of American writers." -- George Saunders

A Recommended Book From
Buzzfeed * TIME * USA Today * NPR * Vanity Fair * The Washington Post * New York Magazine * O, the Oprah Magazine * Parade * Wired * Electric Literature * The Millions * San Antonio Express-News * Domino * Kirkus

A wry, tender portrait of a young woman--finally free to decide her own path, but unsure if she knows herself well enough to choose wisely--from a captivating new literary voice

The plan is to leave. As for how, when, to where, and even why--she doesn't know yet. So begins a journey for the twenty-four-year-old narrator of Days of Distraction. As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, she reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run.

Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you?

Equal parts tender and humorous, and told in spare but powerful prose, Days of Distraction is an offbeat coming-of-adulthood tale, a touching family story, and a razor-sharp appraisal of our times.

Review Quotes

"A startlingly original and deeply moving debut--kaleidoscopic, funny, heart-rending, beautifully observed, and formally daring. It struck me as a new variety of novel, a work of art roughly in the tradition of Claudia Rankine's Citizen, reminding us that there is no difference between the political and the spiritual--everyone is, like the narrator, trying to be free, in order to love and be loved, but terrible forces set loose in the world--racism, corporatism--create obstructions in the path, more for some than for others, creating a political and a moral catastrophe. The accomplishment here is the way that Chang manages to embody this struggle in one quirky, highly self-aware, beautiful human soul, and to engage the reader completely, via the clarity and honesty of the language and her deep insights into human nature. Chang here establishes herself as one of the most important of the new generation of American writers." - George Saunders
"A startlingly original and deeply moving debut--kaleidoscopic, funny, heart-rending, beautifully observed, and formally daring. It struck me as a new variety of novel.... Chang here establishes herself as one of the most important of the new generation of American writers." - George Saunders
"A wholly engaging joy to read. Chang writes with wit and sharpness as she curates moments, observations and histories that together make something of beautiful depth and significance. It takes great bravery to make art of so many of those things we fear and love. An important, gratifying read." - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black
"Chang portrays early adulthood with elegance and an offbeat humor that complements her poignant and deeply significant observations of life as a woman of color. She explores the struggle to be free in an oppressive society with incredible insight and clear, captivating prose that set her apart as a striking new voice in literature." - Booklist (starred review)
"How exhilarating to encounter a first novel this willing to take risks in both form and subject. Chang examines the fraught convergence of racism and intimate relationships with audacious, unsparing clarity, but also with tenderness. There are so many brave, beautiful passages in this book. I relished every page of it." - Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew
"Beautiful, urgent.... The most exciting aspect of Days of Distraction is the way information is revealed. Chang holds back for a long time until, suddenly--just as in life--everything is exposed." - Bust Magazine
"A book of stunning moments.... The book's structure--the fragments, the white space--is what emphasizes these sharp, subtle, comic, intimate, often of-the-now observations.... One of Chang's many gifts here is her ability to write grave doubt with focused prose." - The Rumpus.com
"A sharp, wise and truly contemporary debut novel." - Time
"A strikingly quiet, tender book that simultaneously traces the many big questions -- in Chang's words, the 'precarity of young adulthood, dynamics of being in an interracial relationship, ' the insidious forces of capitalism, racism and sexism -- shadowing the protagonist's struggle to find her place in the world.... Remarkable." - San Francisco Chronicle
"[Chang] transmutes millennial malaise into an astute meditation on identity in the age of algorithms with this deadpan novel of an Asian American journalist fighting to be truly seen--by both her employer and her white boyfriend." - O, the Oprah Magazine