Chong, Kevin 1975–

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Chong, Kevin 1975–

PERSONAL: Born 1975, in Hong Kong, immigrated to Canada, 1977. Education: University of British Columbia, B.A.; Columbia University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Vancouver, Canada. Agent—c/o Bruce and Ashton Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists Ltd., 85 Harbord St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1G4, Canada.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Baroque-a-Nova (novel), Penguin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2001, Putnam (New York, NY), 2002.

Neil Young Nation: A Quest, an Obsession, and a True Story (nonfiction), Greystone Books (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 2005.

ADAPTATIONS: Neil Young Nation has been adapted as a radio documentary, narrated by the author, for Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Kevin Chong's Baroque-a-Nova was called "a first novel that explores with wit and heart two generations haunted by the Summer of Love," by John Green in Booklist. Chong set his novel in British Columbia, where he grew up. The protagonist is Saul St. Pierre, a Vancouver high school student who describes himself as being "eighteen, slack-jawed and gangly in army-surplus apparel, with narrow, miserly eyes and greasy hair falling in them, heavy and frizzy like wet yarn." Saul's First Nations mother, Helena, a singer, and burnout guitarist/songwriter father, Ian, had one folk hit during their brief career during the 1960s and 1970s. Now a German Marxist techno group called Urethra Franklin is covering their song "Bushmills Threnody," putting his parents back in the limelight.

The novel takes place over the week after Saul learns of his mother's death. Helena, who long ago abandoned her family to become a missionary in China, has been hunted down by the press in Taiwan and commits suicide. Mark Rozzo wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that Helena is a "mysterious larger-than-life chanteuse, made all the more romantic by her absence. She is the beguiling heart of this tough-minded ballad about the travails of a pop-culture family." Meanwhile, Saul is protesting his school's ban of the biography of his parents written by his mother's lover. The only mother Saul has ever known is his stepmother, a loving woman who is no longer with his father, who is now attracting groupies Marina and Louise with his renewed fame. While the young women were ignored by Kurt Vonnegut and Peter Bogdanovich, Ian wrote back, and they showed up on his doorstep. Saul's best friend is activist Navi, and his girlfriend is Rose. But it is Marina who Saul lusts after and has some success with. "Chong captures Saul's profound sense of dislocation and teenage angst, and he pens a few brief passages that get beneath the surface of the boy's complex dislike for his father," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.

Quill & Quire reviewer Adair Brouwer called Baroque-a-Nova "compact, clear-sighted, and nervy. Chong's grasp of suburban tackiness is laugh-out-loud awesome." Brouwer added: "Structurally, however, the last half of the novel feels stingy; many passages shrink time too abruptly, or lack the breathing space of dialogue." King Kaufman wrote in the New York Times Book Review that "there are some well-turned passages, particularly when Saul's father tells his story to the TV guys and whenever Saul morosely assesses himself and his chances with Marina." In a Boston Globe review, Carlo Wolff wrote that Chong "deftly outlines a world of dysfunctional families, of celebrities past their prime, of wannabes and could-have-beens. But not all is depressing. There also is hope and, finally, serenity." A Kirkus Reviews contributor described Saul as "an enormously appealing character, a biracial Holden Caulfield whose hatred of phonies extends to himself, in several outrageously funny scenes." Library Journal contributor Jim Coan called Baroque-a-Nova a "sharp, contemporary, and funny debut."

Chong turns from the novel to nonfiction with Neil Young Nation: A Quest, an Obsession, and a True Story. A dedicated fan of the Canadian musician, Chong decides to probe Young's life when he has trouble finishing his next novel. He and three friends, who dub themselves "Team Crazy Horse," take a road trip to trace Young's early life in places where he grew up and worked, including Winnipeg and Thunder Bay in Canada, and then on to his early days in Los Angeles. The author includes interviews with people who knew Young in high school, and intersperses facts about Young's life and career with details about the trip and the people Chong and his friends encounter. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "an ambling and chatty road trip journal that becomes a surprisingly meaningful rumination on getting old without fading away." Writing in Publishers Weekly, a reviewer noted that the author "has a flair for colorful descriptions and bringing character eccentricities alive."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2001, John Green, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 550.

Boston Globe, April 21, 2002, Carlo Wolff, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. E5.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2001, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 1443; September 15, 2005, review of Neil Young Nation: A Quest, an Obsession, and a True Story, p. 1009.

Library Journal, October 15, 2001, Jim Coan, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 106; October 15, 2005, Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., review of Neil Young Nation, p. 59.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 10, 2002, Mark Rozzo, review of Baroque-a-Nova.

New York Times Book Review, April 28, 2002, King Kaufman, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, July 9, 2001, John F. Baker, "Kevin Chong," p. 13; January 14, 2002, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 42; September 12, 2005, review of Neil Young Nation, p. 61.

Quill & Quire, March, 2001, Adair Brouwer, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 52.

Resource Links, October, 2001, Margaret Mackey, review of Baroque-a-Nova, p. 56.