Diamond Grill - by Fred Wah

Fred Wah is a western Canadian authour who has written a number of books. Diamond Grill is published by NeWest Press (Edmonton), which also published books by Thomas Wharton and Hiromi Goto- that may be where I first heard of Fred Wah because I like to look for books by Canadian authours, I think because I enjoy recognizing the familiar landscapes. Diamond Grill is the authour's memoir about working in his family's Chinese restaurant in the 1950's in Nelson, BC. It is really more of a collection of memories, each one ranging from a half-page to a couple of pages, gathered together to form a story. I read the book years ago and remember enjoying it and wanted to reread it being more familiar with Nelson now. There isn't much focus on the setting, as the novel is concerned more with the cafe's daily rhythms, the authour's memories of his father, the role of ancestry in identity, and the authour's feelings of not quite fitting in anywhere, feeling neither white enough nor Chinese enough but rather somewhere in the middle. This was the first book of Wah's that I read and I really enjoyed it; I believe (can't remember which) I've read others of his and found them also to be very good.

It was also fun to glean a few tidbits of life in Nelson in the 50's, such as that there were a half a dozen Chinese restaurants in town (where did they go?) and a Chinatown area on Lake Street; Wait's News got the first soft-serve ice cream machine in 1953, and there was once a Kootenay Tofu company sometime around the 60's or 70's (no longer in existence so far as I can tell and not associated with Silver King). A good, quick read!