The Greatest Dinner Party Ever: An Exclusive Guest Post From Lan Samantha Chang, Author of The Family Chao — Our February Book Club Pick!

Searching through my writing log for the earliest seed of my novel The Family Chao, I came upon this idea from sixteen years ago:  

“The story takes place in one night: It is a huge dinner party.”  

At the time, I was immediately intrigued. What happened at the party? Whose party was it? And, perhaps most importantly, what did the characters eat?  

I imagined a party in a small Midwestern city, similar to Appleton, Wisconsin, where I grew up. I imagined a Chinese American restaurant family with a charismatic and tyrannical father, a larger-than-life man, like my own father.  

But before I could come up with a plot, I had to pause the project. One hundred pages into a meandering first draft, I took a day job as director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. I put away the writing project for nine years to tackle one of the most challenging and inspiring responsibilities a writer can have. 

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is the oldest graduate writing program in the country, with alumni including Flannery O’Connor and John Irving, Anne Patchett, and Yaa Gyasi. As the first female and first Asian director of the program, I wanted to stabilize and equalize financial aid in order to encourage writing from a strong community of diverse voices. 

Working with new writers is fascinating and enriching. It was especially inspiring to talk to writers in the process of developing the initial spark of ideas into stories or novels. When I came back to The Family Chao, I was inspired by the energy and creativity my students put into developing plot and character. I recognized that my new novel must have a strong storyline in which to contain the fabulous dinner party and all of its guests. I needed to create an energetic and magnetic project, something with a propulsive narrative, a work in progress that would keep me entertained for years.  

Over six years and many drafts, my seed of the huge dinner party evolved into the young chef William “Dagou” Chao’s personal fantasy of “the greatest Christmas party ever!” The setting became the Chao family restaurant in Haven, Wisconsin. The menu evolved into a multi-course meal filled with the most succulent food Dagou could dream up, including shrimp with the heads on, stewed mutton, and, of course, Peking Duck. There’s also a vegetarian menu and a bar filled with every kind of alcohol procurable in Haven. Those present at the party include two pairs of future lovers, a flock of Buddhist nuns, a stranger, and a murderer.  

Readers have asked me what I mean by “the most succulent food Dagou can dream up.” Did Dagou really choose the menu? In other words, is it really possible for the characters of a novel to come to life and make decisions independently of the author?  

I suppose the answer is no, not always. There were times when I knew I had to steer the scenes and characters, apply my own willpower to the task of shaping the story line. But the answer is also yes: In this novel, more than in anything I’ve ever written, the three Chao brothers, as well as their loves Katherine and Brenda and Alice, began to talk and act and breathe on the page quite independently of me. Whole days went by when all I had to do was sit down, open my mind, and let them speak.  

Writing prompt: Imagine a big dinner party at which a momentous event takes place. Where does the party take place? Are there family, friends, strangers? What do these people eat? What happens at the party that will change their lives forever?