The novel opens as Charles and second wife Barbra (an immigrant from Taiwan who chose her English name from Barbra Streisand) prepare to pack some clothes and personal items for a road trip from their soon-to-be-foreclosed Bel Air mansion to upstate New York, where they will live with his eldest child, daughter Saina.

[1] The three Wang children are "creative and popular" rather than hewing to the quiet, studious and nerdy model minority image.

[3][4] Previously, Charles had embraced American ideals to the point where he urged his kids to "play the guitar and get laid," his interpretation of what America had to offer.

[5] In 2008, Chang attended an "over the top" launch party for Trump Tower Dubai, held in a Bel Air mansion, as an editor for the luxury magazine Angeleno.

While waiting for the valet to retrieve her car after the party, she found an iPod Touch in her gift bag and was inspired to write about the impending upheaval: "We are about to collapse under the weight of our own excess ... [but] when the world falls apart, anything can happen.

When Chang submitted the unsolicited manuscript to Eddie Huang's literary agent, it was accepted and publishing rights were put up for auction.