SOURCE: A review of Monkey King, in Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 1996, p. 1618.

[In the following review, the critic praises Chao's ability in Monkey King to write a complex novel dealing with difficult themes in a seemingly effortless style.]

[Monkey King is a] skilled first novel that chronicles a young Chinese-American woman's breakdown and recovery, and her concurrent exploration of her family's murky emotional landscape.

When the story begins, 28-year-old Sally Wang is on 24-hour suicide watch at a mental institution that looks like the New England boarding school she once attended. With fellow patients like Lillith, who thinks that she's Joan of Arc, and 19-year-old Mel, who's flirty and prone to violence, Sally endures endless group therapy. Eventually, she begins to talk about her family. Originally from a small Chinese farming village, Sally's father had come to the US with dreams of being a physicist, but his sponsors died...