Alexandra Chang wrote Days of Distraction, a novel about a 24 year old woman living in San Francisco. She is a millennial, a recent college graduate, a daughter of Chinese immigrants, and is employed as a contract journalist writing about technology. She knows she is paid less than her coworkers. She repeatedly asks for a raise in pay only to be told to wait or ask someone else. She lives with her boyfriend, J, who is of Irish descent. He is a biologist applying to graduate school. When he lands a position in Ithaca, New York, she travels with him, giving up her underpaid position. She flounders in Ithaca. Unable to find a suitable job she tries to figure out her path in life and examines why she is in a mixed race relationship. When she describes the micro-aggressions she encounters she wonders why J doesn't take her side, why he tries to explain that there is nothing to be upset about. J throws himself into his graduate work and she throws herself into pursuing her identity. This story was entertaining and educational for me.
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