Sunday’s New York Times Book Review featured a profile of Curtis Chin, author of Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Chin apparently sent the manuscript to 90 agents, none of whom were interested in it. He added the subject of racism, and the story of his coming out, and he got four offers. I am no longer surprised when I read things like this, but I am dismayed. How many good books are going unpublished because they fail to check the obligatory boxes?
