Daydream believer

As we progress through life, we talk about milestones. First you complete your schooling, you go to college then you begin to work or start a career, you may or may not get married or become a parent. No matter what cards we are dealt, if we pay attention, there is joy in our daily ordinary living. Every moment is precious.

Whenever I travel by plane, I carry a book with me. The moment I fasten my seatbelt and settle in my seat, I take out my read. For my recent trip to Hongkong, I had brought along The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang. It is an enjoyable read indeed.

Joan Liang leaves Taiwan to pursue a Master’s degree at Stanford University. While she is there, she marries Milton Liu, a handsome architecture student.

‘The man Joan married was named Milton Liu. He was, of course, Chinese-aside from her landlord,Joan socialized only with Chinese people. Milton , who was studying architecture, was tall and well built, with elegant fingers. He played piano, which Joan liked; she possessed no musical ability, but one of her first splurges in America had been a record player and a few LPs of Bach and Chopin. Milton had an easy way of speaking and excellent cheekbones and a gentle,sleepy expression, which was what had attracted Joan in the first place: besides being handsome, he also looked nice. Because her parents were mean, Joan was drawn to this sort of appearance.‘

Look can be deceiving. After six weeks of marriage, she divorces him when she sees how chauvinistic, lewd and proprietary he regards her as his wife. Then she falls in love with Bill Lauder, an older, wealthy American and a three-time divorcee . After graduating with a master’s in mathematics, she becomes his fourth wife and stepmother to his grownup children, Theo and Juliet. She subsequently has a child with him and also adopts his wayward younger sister’s child. Joan becomes acquainted with Misty who decides that she cannot take care of her daughter whom she names as Leonie (like a lion). Joan calls her Lee. As a Taiwanese woman marrying into a White family, though she often feels isolated and insecure, her introspective nature and steadfast character provide her the strength to navigate around Bill’s dysfunctional family and his circle of friends where the May-December pairing seems common.

‘When she was little, she used to daydream of a place she named in her head the Satisfaction Café which had friendly employees and nice food and pretty toys; even as a child, Joan’s imagination had not stretched to fantastic outcomes but, rather, a reasonable amount of happiness.’ Joan dreams of some little spot that brings out that feeling of contentment.

When Joan telephones her mother, Mei about her fifty -three year old American husband and her new born son, Jamie, the conversation has not gone well. Mei tells her that she is selling herself and she is not sure if she is any good at it. She hangs up the call and after that she sends the last of her own money saved from working at Lotus Garden to her parents. She wonders if her parents will speak to her again once the money stops.

Joan feels lucky to live in California. At times when Jamie is in preschool ,she takes Misty’s young blondish daughter to scroll the garden, she receives strange looks from people in the neighbourhood, and it is assumed that she is a babysitter. She is occasionally approached downtown by mothers impressed with her handling of two charges and she is used to being mistaken as their nanny. Bill has a vasectomy shortly after she brings home Lee who has been abandoned by Misty. Bill does not wish to father any more children at fifty-six. Bill comes from old money and he is decent in the real estate development business started by his father, John.

Bill’s home has been built by his father who commissioned a famed architect to build it. The architect, Ava Castillo had named it ‘Falling House, based on its sloped design,which from certain angles as the sun was setting , made it appear as if the structure were tipping into hts shadows. The home sat on an acre and a half of prime Palo Alto real estate and had been professionally photographed multiple times, magazines making special note of its radial design and vast redwood beams.’

Falling House is an important feature in the story. When tragedies happen, Joan has to move on and find fulfilment in a not perfect life.

The novel’s central theme is about loneliness, compassion and empathy. The protagonist understands the need of a place where one can visit for conversation with a trained host as she knows all about the importance of human connections . She sets up the Satisfaction café, a place to make people feel better . She has gone from a daydream to a real business.

The Satisfaction Café is a tale of domesticity about a woman’s journey in navigating life away from her home country, finding the resolve in herself and coming into her own. Kathy Wang‘s prose is excellent.