It’s about creating balance and executing the imagery in an appropriate way. Writing the magical story elements doesn’t always work quite right on the first attempt. “In Chinese culture, there’s a lot of superstition and folklore, and magic is a great way to express that,” said Lim. “So when I wanted to write this novel, I wanted to have that point of view incorporated.” Magical elements are everywhere a reader turns in this book: recipes that cause literal fireworks to go off above a character’s head, a moment of anger in which the narrator splinters a stool into pieces, and a couple whose relationship mends with gold filling in the cracks between them. When I’m walking around, what I see fills me with wonder on a daily basis,” Lim said. When Lim set out to tell this story, she knew it would contain elements of magical realism. When her mother dies, Natalie journeys back to San Francisco’s Chinatown after seven years away, where she learns more about her mother and the grandmother she never knew, gets to know her neighbors, reopens her grandmother’s restaurant, and falls in love along the way. Lim’s novel follows the story of Natalie Tan, a chef whose chosen career disappointed her mother, causing Natalie to leave home and travel the world.
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