I haven’t had the opportunity to spend much time in New York City, so it was a pleasure to delve into the modern NYC ennui and wonder offered within the pages of Mike Fu’s Masquerade. Packed with mystery, travels through history, and simultaneously gorgeous and sad meditations on what it means to be torn between two places, reading this novel was like adventuring into a world so like our own while beckoning to something more.
The story (and mystery) begins as we follow Meadow Liu, a late twenty-something, apartment- sitting for his longtime friend, Selma. Working a bartending job and failing in his searches for love, Meadow is struggling to find purpose and meaning as he floats in the space between his adventures in New York and his home city of Shanghai. As he hustles to catch a flight, in his search for his passport Meadow stumbles upon a strange green volume—a book entitled The Masquerade—and written by an author who shares his name. From there, strange happenings begin to occur: strangers give ominous warnings, mirrors meld and contort their shapes, and the past begins to look jarringly like the present.
I would love to begin by commending Fu’s full ability and control over character writing. Full of unique, diverse, and memorable characters, Fu’s command over his characters is something admirable that enhanced the reading experience of this novel and elevated it from the average story to a special one. As Masquerade jumps through time periods quickly and broadly, the strong understanding we quickly acquire from the Fu about a new character is very much the grounding aspect of this book. With much going on, and much of that “going on” being unknown, it takes a great writer to help the reader feel grounded in the story, and Fu executed this wonderfully.
The visual descriptions of the story are strong as well, which is why I think setting is one of the most enchanting features of the book. When it comes to Meadow’s inner dialogue, though, there is a lot of telling, rather than allowing the reader to do the work. Perhaps this is due to my background as an English student, but having to do little work as a reader somewhat deflates the reading experience for me. This made the book a faster read that I think it would have been otherwise, but for me it did subtract from the reading experience.
When I say there’s a lot going on, I really do mean there is a lot going on. We sometimes jump into reading the fictional “Masquerade” in Meadow’s possession, then back to the present, into two years ago, into three months ago, and so on. Amidst all the sifting through time, there are questions unanswered galore, from strange men at bars giving ominous warnings to odd and unexplained doppelgänger interactions. And finally, there is heavy alcohol and drug use that only adds to the confusion and unreliability of Meadow’s experiences. At its core, this book is meant to exist in the liminal spaces. Being thrust between locations, memories, and times serves to further Meadow’s experience of feeling unbalanced and unsure of himself as he moves through life at a pace he isn’t sure is the one he wants. Meadow’s struggle to find identity, in partners, careers, and self are relatable and an enjoyable adventure to embark on with him, as Meadow himself is likable and kind.
All of that being said (and I will attempt to venture to say this with no spoilers), I wish the ending had had a more final sense of closure, or at least that some of the strings were more coherently tied up. Most of the strange incidents that occurred were never explained, other than the explanation of “you can choose what stories you write,” which felt kind of like a lazy ending to me. I still enjoyed the book, but being left with questions that feel unintentional wasn’t the way I wanted to leave it.
Masquerade is a wandering and ghostly look at the things that haunt us and the mysteries that follow when we can’t find closure in our past. Investigating past histories and potential futures, Fu has created a memorable and familiar story of self-discovery and the paths we take to get there.
FICTION
Masquerade
By Mike Fu
Tin House Books
Published October 29, 2024
