The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: The Collective, Don Lee

The Collective

Don Lee

Joshua Yoon, Eric Cho, and Jessica Tsai arrive at Macalester College with different baggage but a singular and overpowering ambition--to become artists. As the years progress, their resolve is tested first by an act of campus racism and later, while they're living together as adults in Cambridge, by a set of real-world demands and distractions that ultimately drive them in vastly different directions. A dazzling exploration of racial identity and the queasy position of the artist in contemporary America, Don Lee's latest is a landmark achievement--his most funny, tragic, and revealing book yet.

Winner of the 2013 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

Book Details

  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • Publish Date: Jul 8th, 2013
  • Pages: 320
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.40in - 0.90in - 0.55lb
  • EAN: 9780393345421
  • Categories: LiteraryComing of AgeAsian American & Pacific Islander

About the Author

Lee, Don: - Don Lee is the author of the novels The Collective, Wrack and Ruin, and Country of Origin, and the story collection Yellow. He has received an American Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, an O. Henry Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Temple University and splits his time between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Praise for this book

Heartbreaking, sexy, and frequently funny.--Stephen Lee "Entertainment Weekly"
Hilarious and winning.--John Freeman "Boston Globe"
Don Lee is a phenomenal writer that you absolutely should know and The Collective is a book you absolutely should read.-- "Christian Science Monitor"
Offering strong characterizations and thought-provoking prose, Lee addresses the Asian American experience from various vantage points, realistically examining themes ranging from personal relationships to racism and artistic censorship. His novel has enough depth to spark uninhibited discussion in any book group and given its time frame, will have special meaning for Gen X readers.-- "Library Journal"
A fine prose stylist...he credibly addresses the political and social concerns of a specific demographic, while also rendering a work that will feel relatable to nearly everyone who reads it.-- "Time Out New York"