Review: Something Close to Nothing by Tom Pyun

Title: Something Close to Nothing

Author: Tom Pyun

Year published: 2024

Category: Adult fiction (LGBTQ)

Pages: 250 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): Cambodia, Thailand, Switzerland, Kenya, and the USA (CA, MA, NY)

Summary: First comes surrogacy, then comes the messy gay breakup in Tom Pyun’s tragi-comic debut novel that asks, is it ever too late to finally face yourself and grow up?

Winston Kang and Jared Cahill seem like the perfect couple. When they check-in for their flight to Cambodia, where they’re headed to meet the surrogate carrying their baby girl, even the woman at the airline counter recognizes it: “I’m so happy that marriage is legal for you guys,” she says.

But while Jared is already planning for their second kid—half white like him, half Korean like Wynn—Wynn isn't ready to give up his dreams of becoming a hip-hop dancer to become "the hostage of a crying, pooping terrorist." So he does what anyone in his position would do: He leaves Jared at the airport.

Wynn sets off on a journey around the globe, trying to figure out what it means to put himself first, from auditioning for Misty Espinoza’s comeback tour to organizing a Prince-themed flash mob. Oceans away, Jared starts to panic that no one in his life can talk to Meryl about her period or what it’s like to grow up Asian American.

Review: I was supposed to be reading another book, but this one spoke to me so I read it quickly instead. This novel is a quick read and pulls at the heartstrings with both Wynn and Jared trying to fight for what they want/need, figure out who they are, and hoping to be happy.

They alternate chapters so the reader gets to see their parallel journeys of discovery. Jared works to figure out parenthood and what it means to be a single white dad of an Asian daughter while Wynn works to become a professional dancer and figure out what he wants along the way.

There are moments in the story that are funny, poignant, sad, and frustrating. This is a story about two people who can't quite seem to find their way. They search, they test out, they try something else, they are unsatisfied, and they try again. And the twist near the end? I did not see that coming.

Challenges for which this counts:

• Literary Escapes--Cambodia, Thailand, Switzerland, and Kenya