Although I’m new to Jack Wang’s writing, I’ve come to expect many-layered complexity in the midst of a well-told tale from him. The six short stories and one novella in We Two Alone reflect different historical eras and geographies: the 1920s in British Columbia, Canada; the 1930s in Shanghai, China; or the 1960s in Cape Town, Africa, are just three examples. That’s quite a range and a story could get bogged down in unnecessary exposition, but Wang focuses his work in enough historical context and character development to make a reader care. In each story’s character arc, I found that the protagonist had only one part or point-of-view of the conflict at hand. The conflict deepens as we learn more about the context. Important historical details are embedded in politics and racism that affect the Chinese Diaspora.
For example, in “The Nature of Things,” Alice is a young woman who grew up with her husband, Frank, in Vancouver, British Columbia. With no doctor jobs available for a Chinese-Canadian in the 1930s, her husband finds a position at Hôpital Sainte-Marie in Shanghai. The Japanese take Peking, and because she is newly pregnant, Frank wants to send her to his aunt and uncle in Shanghai while he stays to minister to wartime casualties. In Alice’s argument to remain with her husband, she “felt the dark impulse. Yes, she was professing love, resolve, fear of separation, but she was also trying to saddle his conscience: if you stay, you’ll endanger all three of us.”
The connection between husband and wife continues with weekly phone conversations where they are limited to what they can say in a few minutes. Communication devolves to telegrams, sometimes with a single character “home”. Then comes the news that Japanese forces are only twenty miles from Shanghai. Frank wearily confesses that he thinks it’s finally time for him to leave. But in a faltering voice, Frank tells his wife: “I wanted to win. I wanted to beat the damn Japs.” What follows is Alice’s longing for Frank: “Every day from dawn till dusk, she sat outside, scanning the street, waiting for the first glimpse, the ecstatic moment, but it never came.” She learns that “Frank stayed two more days without telling her.”
The story is heartbreaking because Alice is left with only these small connections and memories of her husband that eventually disappear. Pregnant Alice is momentarily safe with Frank’s aunt and uncle (“her uncle and aunt”) until the Japanese invasion spreads to their home. Still, they wait for Frank and hope for their reunion. At the end of the story, Wang makes an amazing leap by projecting into the future and providing factual narration: “In that moment there were any number of things she didn’t know. For instance, that she would survive the day. That the four of them would make their way to the Yangtze River and fight the spray of water cannons, trying to board a British steamer. That Old Chang would slip and fall into the chaos and never be seen again…”
Jack Wang does this with all of his stories, and yet each has a different and innovative turn. In his novella, “We Two Alone,” the main character is Leonard Xiao, who is founder, director, and lead actor of the Asian American Shakespeare Company. At age 48, his memory begins slipping like his late mother’s mind had. Here, Wang poses the question of who is Leonard and has he waited too long for the opportunity to make his reputation as a respected actor. Married to another actor who has achieved some success, Emily played the role of Honey in an off-Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In a crucial scene, Emily states: “It’s been twenty years!…You can’t say I haven’t tried. I’ve given it everything. Given up everything. What else do you want from me.”
As Leonard grows older, more issues arise concerning his memory. How can a good actor perform without knowing his scripts? Throughout the novella, how he recollects important events changes from what even Emily remembers. Dialogue and scenes are vividly presented.
It’s not surprising to discover that most of these stories have been published and reprinted in short story prize anthologies. They are unique in topic and execution. The resolutions are not what I would have predicted but fit each piece well.
In a question and answer discussion with Barbara Adams (June 4, 2021) for the Ithaca Times, Wang stated that he wanted to “break out of the more familiar immigrant narrative of coming to North America in the late 20th century, in order to create a broader portrait.” This is a notable goal that this writer has successfully accomplished. I thoroughly enjoyed Jack Wang’s characters, situations, and writing. I look forward to being surprised with his next project.
