Cecily Wong's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I’ve been gradually making my way through Moshin Hamid’s books, and this one might be my favorite. Told in the second person, the novel is crafted like a self-help book—a sly nod to the business advice books instructing young people across contemporary Asia.

It tells the story of an unnamed narrator and his rise from a poor, rural kid to a successful entrepreneur. It’s an emotional wallop of a book, as the protagonist hustles and hustles, growing further from his past while still being haunted by it.

Hamid’s books always sneak up on me with their clever heft; he does this incredible blending of cultural commentary with enormous compassion and heart, and this book is a prime example.

I know very few people who didn’t fall for this book. It’s the kind of saga that you can disappear into, with a little something for everyone: turbulent friendship and unrequited love, art-making, video games, ambition, betrayal, and joy.

I love this book for its wildly honest, insightful, and often brutal rendering of art-making and the relationships that sustain a creative life. It spoke to my writerly heart—chartered the messiness of wanting to make things, the hunger and insecurity and pleasure of it.

I’m also a sucker for a novel with an innovative form, and there are a few chapters sprinkled throughout that were just ingenious.

I’ve been on a second-person narrator kick this year, both because I love the intimacy of the format and for my own novel-writing research. This book is such a romp.

It follows a guy with a bunch of problems he’s not talking about, among them a drinking problem, as he tries to stamp out those problems with chaotic fun. It teeters between light and dark in such an affecting way, all the humor with a tinge of pain. Plus, the voice is like candy.

It’s an ode to the dumbassery and bravado of youth that felt both nostalgic and voyeuristic.