Rental House by Weike Wang: book review

Rental House by Weike Wang

Overview: Keru and Nate were college sweethearts who met at Yale. Afterwards, he became a tenured science professor while she held down a high powered consulting job. This book follows two different trips to rental houses that they rent to see their families and reconnect with each other. Each visit has its own trials. Keru's parents immigrated from China to the United States when she was young and had to work extremely hard to gain a foothold in their new country. Because of this, they cultivate nearly unattainable standards for Keru, even into adulthood. Nate's white working-class family from a rural town in the foothills presents their own challenges, bringing a racist undertone (and sometimes more overt language) to most exchanges and testing Nate's patience in their worldview. Then, on a second trip years later, Keru and Nate are yet again confronted with comparing themselves to a couple next door and having to meet an unexpected and unwanted visitor. Overall: 4

Characters: 4 This book made me realize that I haven't read a book about a couple that chooses to be child free that follows them from their thirties into being forty. It explores their already established life and choices and how even when they're on the same page, making choices that are against a certain "norm" is hard. Keru and Nate both seem to genuinely not want kids, but the ways that society pushes them as a couple creates dissonance that creates rifts between them. I really liked both Keru and Nate as characters, and they felt very realistic and honest to themselves and their situation. Keru is extremely disciplined and feels most comfortable in the chaos of her demanding job. To a certain extent, she seems to struggle to be present and with her feelings. This comes out in random bursts of anger or at least in wanting to deviate from what she knows she "should" do. This usually manifests in throwing things. Nate loves being a professor and is generally happy with his life choices, but he struggles with his relationship to traditional masculinity and then with his frustration that he cares about this construct. They both feel very real, as well as their parents. The point that I struggled with is that this is a fantastic portrait, but there's very little growth or evolution that happens. It doesn't feel like we go on a journey with them but rather watch snapshots. 

Plot: 3.5 Spoiler alert, there is no plot. This is a short novel, barely over 200 pages, but by the end, it started to drag. A part of me wishes that this was a short story collection instead. The book felt like it could've been a super strong short story or two or three, but it didn't gel like a novel to me. The characters all stayed relatively static, which makes sense in a lot of ways because we only see them in tiny snapshots. The book time jumps halfway through, but that doesn't produce significant change in Keru or Nate either. There is no journey only surviving one minute into the next. 

I enjoyed the way that Wang brought these families and the central couple to life. It was compelling and realistic and thoughtful. I was thoroughly entertained through the first half. The second grew more repetitive and then there was a strange surprise visitor towards final 30 or so pages that also didn't develop. The ending was somewhat disappointing and felt like it rushed to try to create some kind of movement or announcement of "here is the change" through summary in the final page and a half. This felt abrupt and like Wang didn't quite know how to end the novel. At that point, I would've preferred a full commitment to static portraiture. 

Writing: 4 I really like Wang's writing style and the way that she built the characters in this novel. It's made me curious to read her other two novels. The book isn't plot driven, but the writing is fast paced, which gives the book a sense of urgency within the small family dramas that pepper the novel. I see this being a highly cathartic read for many readers. 

More on Reading, Writing, and Me:

Didion & Babitz nonfiction review

NW review

Rejection review

2025 Goals

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