Book Review: Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Melinda Lo

5/5 stars

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Intro

In my head, fiction is split into categories.

There's romance and fantasy, the ones I can read in one sitting, then there's realistic fiction, the ones with themes and motifs, that shouldn't be read hysterically in three hours.

Some books need to be read slowly and thoroughly so you can analyze each sentence and wonder why the author included it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a ‘slow reader’ as much as a ‘binge book’, especially because they usually become my favorite read of the month, despite taking me weeks to get through.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo, was a little out of my comfort zone. I read fast-paced books where everyone is in love and the world is possibly ending. This book was none of those things.

Some Characters

LNATTC takes place in the 1950s in San Francisco following the Korean War. Our main character, Lily Hu, is a senior in high school living with her parents and two brothers in Chinatown. The book is an exploration of Lily's sexuality, her family, and her culture.

Lily's character matches the soft tone of the book. The book moves slowly as Lo takes her time characterizing Lily. Lo spends time on each character, using multiple chapters and different scenes to build up their description.

This thoroughness leads to a slower build-up and overall tone of the book.

Lily starts as a meek character who prefers to fly under the radar. For most of the book, we get very little of Lily speaking her mind or acting on her desires.

To emphasize the introvertedness of Lily, Lo uses Lily’s best friend Shirley, an outgoing and confident girl (the opposite of Lily), to illustrate Lily's docile and submissive character.

I love when two characters are used to describe the other like the characters in A Taste of Gold and Iron, my latest book review.

Plot and Structure (and Lily’s sexuality journey!!!!!)

I'm not a huge fan of long narratives, but Lo uses detailed narration to put her readers directly in Lily's head.

I haven't taken an English class in a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd like to say this book is third-person limited.

We are very clearly in Lily's point of view for most of the book, and we typically only know her thoughts and feelings. This allows us to be deep in her head and know what she's thinking and feeling.

Sometimes, you feel like you know more than Lily as she struggles to accept and articulate what she’s feeling.

I think what I loved most about this book was that, as a reader, I was a passenger for Lily's sexuality journey and coming out.

From the beginning, Lo throws hints that this book is Lily is questioning her sexuality.

We start to see that Lily is attracted to girls when she goes to the convenience store after school. The store has a stand of books and mixed in with the romance are some erotic lesbian novels. Lily sneaks to the store to read these books.

I love these scenes because we see Lily indulging in this desire she otherwise tries to ignore.

We don't get a full coming out until deep in the book. I think this slow realization, though it could feel dragged out, was used to show that coming to terms with your sexuality has a lot of different parts and that it isn’t a quick or easy thing for Lily.

Lily's journey begins to shift from something happening in her head to something she’s partaking in when she becomes friends with the only other girl in her math class, Kath.

The two form a relationship based on their mutual interest: things that boys typically favored in the 50s (like math). Lily's dream of going to space and Kath's of flying an airplane connected the girls to a level that no one else could reach.

It was a new kind of friendship for both of them. Both girls were used to people telling them their ambitions were stupid and unrealistic, but they had each other to be the other’s biggest supporters. Lily's Aunt Judy was the only other person who truly supported her passion for space until she met Kath.

I loved watching the friendship blossom between Lily and Kath. I think Lo really captured the beauty and intensity of lesbian relationships.

For so long, lesbians and queer women have been sexualized by their desires, and Lo replaced that with sheer passion and love. Lo showed her audience how encompassing and deep love between two women can be.

A person's first love, especially in high school, can be so precious, which is how I felt about Lily and Kath. The way they skirted around each other and how big a deal it was when they started walking home together was so cute and perfect.

As many people joke, queer f/f relationships tend to move fast, but Lily and Kath are the opposite. I wouldn't say Lily's fear of her sexuality kept her from realizing her feelings for Kath, but her inability to truly accept and appreciate her feelings made her unaware of Kath's.

Lily and Kath's relationship shifts when they decide to visit a lesbian club together. This new step in their friendship has lily in uncharted waters.

She sneaks out at night and meets Kath outside of Chinatown where they visit a lesbian bar and meet other queer people.

There's a lot of uncertainty whenever Lily visits the club because of how new it is. She drinks beer, sits close to Kath, and watches a male impersonator perform.

Tommy Andrews, a male impersonator at the club, is like a celebrity to Lily. I think Tommy represents the person that Lily could be once she finally accepts this part of herself.

~

Historical Aspects

While Lo does a fabulous job creating a beautiful first relationship between Kath and Lily, the book is also a deep exploration of Asian American life.

Lily's father immigrated to the US from Shanghai and was a doctor in World War 2. Lily's life is immersed in Chinese culture from living in Chinatown and from both her parents. Her friend group is made up of children also from Chinatown. Kath is one of her first friends from outside of her neighborhood.

Lo's book, though fiction, does dive deep into the experience of Asian Americans in the 50's. Lo includes discussions about Communism, Japan, World War 2, and the Korean War.

There are many scenes of how the War affected Lily and her family. We see how the US handled the threat of communism and how Lily and her family dealt with the war and the racism they faced.

I like how this book wasn’t just about Lily’s sexuality, but analyzed other parts of her identity.

Lo diverts from Lily's character throughout the book by switching to Lily's mother and aunt's point of view. These different POVs give two different perspectives.

Lily's Aunt Judy discusses the difference between life in America and China, which is what I think Lo is trying to do in her book. Like I said, I don't typically dabble in historical fiction, but Lo's book is a clear deep dive on not just life as a young queer girl, but life as a Chinese American in the 50s.

Final Thoughts

I won't get into the plot and ending too much, but I loved the ending. Once the climax hits, let me tell ya, it does not stop hitting. 

For a moment, I felt like Lily's life was over. I could feel how helpless and lost she felt through Lo's writing, and I really didn't know what was going to happen. Lo's ending is realistic and fits the book very well.

The ending can make or break a book, and Lo successfully ended her book in not quite a perfect circle, but in a satisfying and almost happy curved line. 

This book took me longer than usual to read, but I found absolutely no faults with it.

Fiction recently has become a genre filled with mindless romance and tropey plots. As much as I love an easy read, many of those books don’t explore anything besides lust and desire. 

This book showed two parts of Lily's identity, her sexuality and family, crashing into each other. 

I really loved the way Lo captured coming to age and accepting your sexuality the way she did here. I could say so much more about this book because of how much Lo included. 

Sometimes, authors add too much to the point where the book feels drawn out, but Lo expertly combined plots and conflict to create an in-depth coming-of-age novel. 

This book was a 5/5. I have no complaints or suggestions or anything negative to say. Read this book!!!!!