Silicon Valley’s quirky characters and its unsettling orbit of power have long been the focuses of films, TV shows, and books.
In her latest novel, “Impostor Syndrome,” writer Kathy Wang takes Silicon Valley eccentricity and corruption to a new level.
Wang describes the pull of the Silicon Valley setting for her:
“When I wrote my first book, I mostly chose it because I’ve lived here almost my entire life, and writing about it comes easily to me. Originally, I had said that I didn’t want to do another Silicon Valley book, but the idea came to me, and I just couldn’t let go of it. It’s really easy to lampoon Silicon Valley — the personalities are outsized, and there’s a lot of lack of self-awareness here. But I do view this place more sincerely, and I want to show a more mixed perspective on the place. When you’re a kid of immigrants, you take the place at face value: You think, I’m going to go to college here and get a job, and hopefully, I can have health insurance. I didn’t examine it for a long time.”
Featuring Russian espionage, commentaries on data privacy, class disparities, and immigration, “Impostor Syndrome” seems to build a genre all its own.
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