The Satisfaction Café
Wang's sumptuous new novel The Satisfaction Cafe beguiled me so fiercely I wanted, once finished, to un-remember it so I could relish it again for the first time. In no way the Hallmark-card rom-com its title may suggest, this deft, sharp, funny, poignant chronicle delights and surprises: modern, complex, credibly absurd. Traveling skillfully across one woman’s lifetime, readers will feel up-close and personal — both to that trajectory and to all the lives it touches. One of the richest, prickliest, wittiest contemporary sagas I can recall, Satisfaction is — I’m sorry, no other words work — profoundly satisfying.
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Winsome ... Sharp ... The plot of The Satisfaction Café is relatively muted as it leaps through the decades of Joan’s life. In any case, the real attraction of this novel isn’t its plot but its voice. Ironic but rarely biting, Wang’s narration moves nimbly just above Joan’s perplexed perspective while catching the notes of absurdity and hypocrisy around her.
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Wang’s writing is sharp, comical, and quietly heartbreaking. Perfect for readers who love an emotional slow burn, The Satisfaction Café is a poignant, darkly funny story about how we survive—and even sometimes thrive—after life doesn’t go as planned. At its heart, it is a moving portrait of how starting over can be its own kind of victory.
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