With its closing shops, leaky roof, and skeleton staffing, Greenways Mall in Albany, NY, is on its wobbly last legs. At Sunshine Clips, nine-year-old Jackson Huang is sweeping the floor of hair. His mother, Tina, is the last remaining hair dresser. Jackson wants to be a magician. Ro is an 89-year-old client, who stops by weekly.
Across the way is a bookstore, Book Nook, run by Kevin Walker, who is a “failed Ph.D.” He is married to college sweetheart Gwen, and they have two children. They live in a tiny house in Gwen’s mother’s backyard. Maria works at Chickety Chick selling fast food in the food court, in her chicken costume. She aspires to be an actor.
These are some of the denizens of Karin Lin-Greenberg’s novel You Are Here. They all have their own secrets. They all have their own aspirations, some big, some small—but mostly small. Their lives are a mix of imagination and the real. And their dreams all read as mundane, half-baked. They are unthinkingly petty except for when they catch themselves and strive for their better selves.
Jackson Huang was named after Michael Jackson. He is being raised by his single mother, who watches YouTube videos and aspires to be an artist. She sketches on paper scraps around the shop whenever she has a free minute.
The novel covers September through June, with each chapter highlighting the characters from different points of view. Each character has their own sense of the world, and the others shed light on them in ways that may be surprising to the observed. They are sensitive in their own ways. They observe the world through their own lenses and interests.
In this happenstance community, there is something of a sense of left-behind people. Belinda, 71, the purple-haired store manager, drops by for a rare visit to the salon. Tina observes that she goes to a different hair color to differentiate herself and to feel creative. Instead of going for the actual, there is a sense of compromise, going for the proxy, going for the substitute, the ersatz. The characters all see through each other’s social subterfuges, and when they feel generous, they let the illusions stand.
At one point, Jackson follows an Asian architect as he wonders if this man might be his unknown father. He is saving up to buy a Bite Coin for a magic trick. He sees one of his favorite YouTube magicians, who used to be a big-name draw, but who is no longer able to perform but still has a traveling show in which he shows videos from his heyday. People enjoy being tricked by illusory magic.
In the American economy of celebrity, of notable achievements, of differentiation, few of the characters would register. The notables are on the periphery. And yet, their lives are relevant and depicted in heartfelt ways. And yet, they strive, with different measures of success. Each is figuring out how the world works, and their ideas about how to get ahead vary. Meanwhile time continues apace, and they are constantly aging out of potentials.
Lin-Greenberg, in You Are Here, is a conjurer of the first order. She interweaves aspects of human identity across the generations, and across racial and ethnic lines.
There is a sweetness to the human connections as the various characters navigate their identities and hopes. This novel is the work of a brilliant empath. This is a hopeful work, where sometimes a small assist here and there can be the life-changing difference. This work leaves the heart feeling full.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
