Q&A with Van Hoang

Photo by Francisco J. Zuniga

 

Van Hoang is the author of the new novel The Monstrous Misses Mai. Her other books include the middle grade novel Girl Giant and the Monkey King. She lives in Los Angeles.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Monstrous Misses Mai, and how did you create your character Cordi?

 

A: At first, I was simply obsessed with the aesthetics of 1950s fashion and hairstyles. The hats! The gloves! The coffee percolators! Like most women I know, I would love more pockets in my clothes, and wanted to put that into a book, as well.

 

In fact, The Monstrous Misses Mai is just filled with all the things I love, including the music.

 

When the story first emerged, I was stuck at home at the height of the pandemic on maternity leave, and had also just graduated with my master’s in library science with nowhere to go, and in a way, I wanted to escape into a different time period and be somewhere cheerful.

 

All those emotions went into this book, as well as our main character. Cordi was born out of a need to deal with some things I went through in my 20s, when I was her age.

 

Coming to terms with my family trauma and how difficult it is to make friends as you enter adulthood, though of course she is not me and I’m not her–she grew into her own character the more she left my brain and emerged on the page.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

 A: I read books and magazines published in that time period–like Valley of the Dolls, Life magazine, Mademoiselle. I hunted down microfilms, searched online newspaper databases, and read as much as I could to get the voice and language of how people spoke, especially in L.A.

 

Thank God for libraries with local history departments, newspaper collections, and digital archives.

 

What I found most challenging was giving myself permission to write about a city that belongs to so many people and claim the authenticity to do so, because Los Angeles feels so old yet so young, vast but also a microcosm of diverse cultures with so much personality.

 

I wanted to know what daily life was like for single women in their 20s, so I printed an old map of Los Angeles during 1959 and plotted all the locations that appeared in the book, charting out how Cordi could get to work, what routes the girls would take during their outings.

 

I watched remastered YouTube videos of cars driving down streets during that time. I happened to have a friend who works for the L.A. County Planning Department, and picked her brain on the transit system and other past developments.

 

And of course, my agent Mary encouraged me to breathe 1959 into every scene of the book, and assigned me homework, like watching movies and shows or reading amazing books.

It helps that I absolutely love old documents, photographs, and anything that hints at what daily life was like. I spent hours looking at advertisements, classifieds, and missed connections, which I find so entertaining.

 

The research felt daunting at first–I didn’t set out to write a historical novel but one set in a secondary world inspired by the 1950s, but after early talks with my agent, I realized that I was just scared of the work. Once I got into it, I got really into it and found it so fascinating and gratifying. I think I’m addicted now.

 

Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: There is this running joke in the Vietnamese community that when non-Viet writers make up Viet female characters, they always choose the name Mai.

 

It’s a popular name–I myself might know a Mai or five–so I wanted to take ownership of that and to also poke fun at how sometimes people in our culture will exhaust a name we really love.

 

My mom was one of many Nguyens, for example–though I know that has a lot more history behind it–and my sisters and I all have the same middle name (unfortunately, it is not Mai).

 

Also, the fact that Mai is not exclusive to Vietnamese people but is a popular name among other cultures made it feel like a nod to female solidarity.

 

Q: This is your first novel for adults after writing for kids--do you have a preference?

 

A: I am, at heart, a middle grade tween, so I will always love the silliness and wonder that goes into books for kids. If I hadn’t read some of my favorite books when I was that age, I might not be who I am or do what I do now, and the idea that I could, in turn, help shape someone else’s life is so gratifying and magical.

 

On the other hand, I really love being able to cuss in my adult books and to acknowledge the existence of drinking and sex without covering my eyes, so that’s a huge draw.

 

But joking aside, I love that in the adult space, I don’t have to hold back–I can explore any dark themes or scary details I want. Though you could say that about children’s books as well–I can be as silly as I want and there is really no limit to how silly I can be.

 

So, the short answer is no, I love them both.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m finishing the follow-up to The Monstrous Misses Mai, which is not a sequel. It’s set in 1930s Old Hollywood and there are ghosts and smokey magic and Asian aunties involved.

 

I’m having so much fun because it’s another novel in which I get to combine all the things I’m obsessed with while dealing with some real-life trauma on the page, on my own terms.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This is a book about young women going through adulty things, and they all happen to be Asian.

 

It doesn’t set out to deal with any racism going on at that time because I believe that girls like me deserve fun stories too, to wear cute dresses with pockets, and to simply have problems that don’t directly address their ethnicity.

 

This book doesn’t ignore those issues. I literally cannot ignore those issues. I deal with microaggression every day. Which is why I didn't want to write a whole book about it. Women of color deserve to have stories without having to justify that they’re worth telling just because they don’t deal with the problems we have to deal with in real life.

 

And I honestly had a lot of fun writing this book so I hope readers have a lot of fun reading it too.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb