Rental House

A Novel

By: Weike Wang

Narrated by: Jen Zhao

DAKOTA JOHNSON’S TEATIME PICTURES DECEMBER BOOK CLUB PICK

ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024

“One of the most nuanced, astute critiques of America now I’ve read in years. And it’s also frequently hilarious.”—Los Angeles Times

“A funny, perceptive look at what it means to defy societal expectations…timeless.”—Washington Post

“[For] basically anyone who is breathing, Rental House is a must-read."—San Francisco Chronicle

“Sharp, insightful, occasionally heartbreaking, and incredibly relatable.”—Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“For anyone who’s experienced demanding parents, misunderstanding in-laws, a vacation-gone-wrong, or mid-life questions about how to reconcile your own personality liabilities with those of the person you love most.”—Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot

From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife.

Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?

With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular” style (People) and “hilarious deadpan that recalls Gish Jen and Nora Ephron” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Weike Wang offers a portrait of family that is equally witty, incisive, and tender.

©2024 Weike Wang (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“One of the most nuanced, astute critiques of America now I’ve read in years. And it’s also frequently hilarious...[Wang] is at her most poignant and penetrating. She’s cast her lens, with immense empathy, on how divisiveness has hardened our desolation and made us more desirous than ever of a connection we rarely feel. She’s done what only great fiction writers can do."—Los Angeles Times

“Wang paints an elegantly off-kilter portrait of partnership and its isolations, and of the ungainly, imperfect intimacy of family.”—The New York Times

"Blazingly insightful, Weike Wang’s Rental House is a pitch-perfect send-up of all the ways we humans can misunderstand or unintentionally (sometimes intentionally) wound our loved ones and drive each other crazy...[For] basically anyone who is breathing, Rental House is a must-read."—San Francisco Chronicle

Mismarketed or off theme

Several literary critics applauded this novel as an excellent portrayal of the tensions that arise between childless couples and their parents. While Ms. Wang has no shortage of advocates for her writing, I found this work to be overly congratulatory with cartoonish supporting characters. Ultimately, this novel is autobiographical fiction to draw attention to perceived hardships experienced by Chinese-Americans in the academic and corporate world. One last note: some readers might be turned off by the tone-deaf illustrations of personal hardship.

Boring

Not worth the listen. The story really did not develop much and the ending was flat.

Waste of time

Didn’t like any of the characters
Depressing and mediocre - don’t bother to read this despite its appearance of best of 2024 lists

Narrator great but story lost me

This book kept putting me to sleep. There is no real plot, just a few people in a rented vacation home arguing with each other and navel-gazing about marriage and cultural identity. Not my cup of tea. The narrator is excellent -- none of my problems with the book were her fault.

Disappointed and bored

Not what i was expecting. Some interesting commentary within but the whole second half felt like i was trudging through it.

Disappointing

At times humorous, but overall boring. Disappointing, as I was looking forward to this release

Weike Wang’s Best Yet

I love this author but I always long for more realistic interiority from her characters, especially in the novels. This one grants my wish.

Flat storyline with monotone narration

Story goes nowhere and resolves nothing. References intriguing social and political issues without making them interesting at all. Ends abruptly, as if the author hit some predetermined word count and just quit typing. A true waste of my time. I did like that it is a short book. Have read others by this author that were far better.

Depressing

I wanted to like this book as I enjoy the author but the characters were just so depressing, negative, and really really whiny