Summary

The novel is told from the perspective of an unnamed Chinese American narrator, married to a white American man named Sam. They have two young children named Noah and Lily. The novel open with the narrator recalling the moment she realized that her children preferred bed time stories told by their father than the ones told by her. She read them stories from books written by other people, whereas their father Sam combined characters and plots from different well known stories together and created something new. She was surprisingly hurt to discover that her children asked for another story from Sam after she had already told them one. She goes to a bookstore with her best friend Darlene and buys a book called “The Big Book of Anti-Jokes” which she hopes will make her funnier to her children. The narrator dreamt of becoming...