FIVE-STAR STRANGER

An unhappy young man tries to redeem himself, and make a living along the way, by fulfilling the fantasies of strangers.

The unnamed narrator of Tang’s provocative, self-assured debut has been working for a decade as a “Rental Stranger,” performing as boyfriend, wingman, brother-in-law from out of town, despondent mourner at a funeral, or whatever other role his clients need in order to impress their friends and relatives, as long as it doesn’t involve any emotional attachment or carnal activity. Haunted by the death of his depressed actress mother when he was a teenager, he does his best to lose himself in his work. His longest-standing role is as father to Lily, who is now 9. Because her mother, Mari, wanted a stable male figure in Lily’s life, the Stranger has been picking her up from day care and then school once a week since she was 2, in the guise of a long-distance trucker father. More recently, he has begun playing the role of an alcoholic brother to creative writing student Darlene, who wants to make her writing more realistic. As Lily grows more suspicious of what her “father” is doing when he’s not around, Mari’s life takes a new direction, and the relationship between the narrator and Darlene tests the narrator’s boundaries, he begins to wonder if it’s time for a change of career. Peeks into how the narrator handles his many assignments, which include a public proposal to a woman trying to make her lover jealous, add humor to what could otherwise be a melancholy tale. Tang plays deftly with the conventions of romantic comedy, tempting the reader to long for the promise of happy endings and then throwing cold water on those hopes and embedding sharp ethical dilemmas in a cocoon of diverting dialogue.

A smart look at people-pleasing taken to its illogical extreme.