What We Left Unsaid

Li’s enjoyable third novel (after Complicit) follows three adult siblings on a cross-country road trip on U.S. Route 66. Bonnie, Kevin, and Alex Chu grew up in Southern California, the children of Taiwanese immigrants. Now middle-aged, the three are rarely in touch, much to their parents’ dismay. Bonnie has married into a wealthy blue-blooded family in Boston. Kevin, an embittered conservative, is experiencing “The Midlife Crisis of the Asian American Dad” in a Chicago suburb, while Alex, the progressive youngest, lives in London and is expecting a child with her wife. They are unexpectedly reunited after their mother asks the siblings to drive together to the Grand Canyon. This unusual request stems from an episode when the family attempted a trip to the canyon in 1991 but turned around en route after something traumatic happened at a gas station. Li toggles between the two trips, gradually revealing the past events and untangling the present-day conflicts caused by the siblings’ polarizing politics and varying degrees of privilege. At times, the plot feels over-engineered to expose various fault lines (the siblings pass a conveniently located Black Lives Matter protest in the Ozarks, for example), but Li capably explores the complex dynamics among her characters. This satisfies. (Aug.)