MISTER YAM

A man searches for a missing friend in this debut novel.

Mister Yam—yes, he’s aware it’s a strange name—is a 25-year-old man from Malaysia with a corporate job in San Francisco. He isn’t as gung-ho about the business world as his friend Lorenzo de Medici, who is desperate to land a job—any job. One day, Mister Yam gets a phone call from a mysterious woman who makes fun of his name—“Are you the one they call the purple starch?”—before revealing that she knows far more than she should about his sandwich-making habits. Later, on a train, a bald stranger gives Mister Yam a wooden box that he claims he’s never been able to open. “Ciao,” says the man as he disembarks at the next stop. “And whatever you do, don’t get lost.” Not long after, Mister Yam learns that Lorenzo has vanished—in fact, he’s been missing for weeks. So begins a journey to connect these puzzling threads, one that leads Mister Yam through a string of encounters with unusual people in dive bars, ranches, and hotels. Can he follow the enigmatic trail of clues in order to discover what happened to his friend? Or is he simply being led on a wild goose chase into the madness of the American dream? Tan’s cerebral novel is reminiscent of Haruki Murakami both in its structure and its dreamlike prose, which is always surprising though sometimes difficult to follow in Mister Yam’s narration: “Perceptiveness was not an adjective I’d ever use to describe myself, but it was clear that something was off. Like cucumber on a steak, the mismatch was obvious. But if strangeness was the cucumber, then the silence was its sauce, which descended upon me as I sat in the deserted space.” The tale’s tone is charmingly offbeat, keeping readers invested despite how slowly the author dispenses information about the narrator and his quest. Even so, the audience will eventually become frustrated with the lack of direction. The story dawdles along to a twist ending that is neither satisfying nor even terribly original, and readers will be left feeling as though they are the ones who have been led on a wild goose chase.

An alluring but uneven mystery in the Murakami mold.