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888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers
888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers | Abraham Chang
1 post | 1 read | 1 to read
Goodreads Editor's Pick - Publishers Weekly Author to Watch "Packed with pop culture.... A beautifully tender and funny examination of love, of identity, of making your way in a world that is getting bigger and smaller at the same time." --Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Nothing to See HereLove is a numbers game... Young Wang has received plenty of wisdom from his beloved uncle: don't take life too seriously, get out on the road when you can, and everyone gets just seven great loves in their life--so don't blow it. This last one sticks with Young as he is an obsessive cataloger of his life: movies watched, favorite albums . . . all filtered through Chinese numerology and superstition. He finds meaning in almost everything, for which his two best friends endlessly tease him. But then, at the end of 1995, when Young is at New York University, he meets Erena. She's brilliant, charismatic, quick-witted, and crassly funny. They fall in love and, for Young, it feels so real that he's thrilled and terrified. As Young and Erena's relationship blossoms, we get flashbacks to Young's first five loves. That means Erena is "number six." Was his uncle wrong--is she the one and only? Or are they fated for failure to make room for Young's final, seventh love? A love letter to Western pop culture, Eastern traditions, and being a first-generation New Yorker, Abraham Chang's dazzling debut reminds us that luck only gets us so far when it comes to matters of the heart.
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For a Gen Xer like myself, this book was trip down memory lane of pop culture of that time. The feelings we had when we were young, trying to make sense of the world and our place in it. Abraham Chang takes all of this and creates not only a love story(ies), but a quirky story of family, culture and home. I loved the alternating timelines, the letters from his uncle, and the progression of Young's character reflected in the world around him.