When Chang-rae Lee begins a project, the writer always asks himself: "Why do I need this story?"
"My Year Abroad," the comic novel he'll discuss in a Talking Volumes event Tuesday, is about a young New Jerseyan named Tiller who's "twelve and one-half % Asian." Tiller, 20, drifts from his father's home to a relationship with an older woman to a series of mentors, passively taking in their business, relationship, food and sexual tips.
Initially, Lee had another main character. He first dreamed up Pong, a shadowy, Chinese American businessman who meets Tiller on a golf course and ends up spiriting him to Hong Kong, where many of the picaresque's outlandish events take place.
"Pong is not cowed by being a minority or immigrant in a culture. He's someone with power and means and I thought, 'Gosh, I really like this character,' " said Lee by phone. "But I started to interrogate that story and think, 'Why do I need it? Why do I find this figure so appealing?' And that's when I came up with Tiller."
Because Tiller is not sure what he wants from life, he's in a rut. That's something Lee could relate to. After 14 years as a creative writing teacher at Princeton, he switched coasts and moved to Stanford University in 2016, around the time he started the book.
"I was feeling fairly established and comfortable, and I needed — as we all do — a new perspective," said Lee, 55.
Shifting to the San Francisco area, a "ready doorway to Asian culture," had a big impact on his sixth novel.
"What is emerging from Tiller is his Asianness and his interest in Asian things. That's always been something that is in the background for me," said Lee, whose "Aloft," "Native Speaker" and "A Gesture Life" all grapple with cultural dislocation. "Some of my earlier books, the characters are much deeper in thinking about this but Tiller is a young guy, and because of his smaller percentage ... he's just beginning a journey of curiosity."