Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, read by Emily Woo Zeller
- Publisher: Listening Library, January 19th 2020
- Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Young Adult
- Format: Audiobook
- Length: 12 hrs 26 mins (416 pages)
- My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW IN EN & ZH-TW | 有聲書書評（中英對照）
EN
Content warning: racism, homophobia, manipulation, mention of miscarriage, alcohol (underage drinking)
She couldn’t find the right words for this dammed-up feeling inside, as if she were denying herself something absolutely vital, and she didn’t know why.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is less about the romance between Lily and Kath but more about Lily trying to grasp her identity as a Chinese American lesbian in the 1950s.
In the prologue, four years before the main story (1950), thirteen-year-old Lily Hu (胡麗麗) and her childhood best friend Shirley Lum attend Miss Chinatown Contest with their families. I’d say this one chapter is the summary of the entire book in one way or another as we see Lily becoming aware of skin and bodies and the interactions between her and Shirley.
When Lily stumbles upon an ad for male impersonator Tommy Andrews’ performance at the Telegraph Club (1954), she is mesmerized, not quite understanding why. But she keeps the clip along with a few others in her copy of The Exploration of Space. All her dreams in one place, I think. As the new school year starts, there are only two girls left in Advanced Math—Lily herself and Kathleen Miller, who dreams of becoming a pilot. Their orbits never coincide until this very moment, and it makes all the difference.
Hearing the name “Kath” makes me sigh now, and that’s how much I love the character. She is sweet and loving and I desperately wish we were able to spend more time with her instead of with Shirley. But of course, it is the preciousness of the scenes that makes everything more delicious. Told through Lily’s third-person point-of-view, we watch how she and Kath first bond over mathematical and scientific endeavors—Lily wanting to pursue a career in space science and Kath wanting to be a pilot—and their friendship slowly grows into something neither could comprehend.
What if they were thinking of each other at the same time?
In-between each part, there are flashback chapters told through the POVs of the older generation—Lily’s mother, father, and aunt. These bring the historical stories of that generation into the plot, the generation plagued by wars and PROC overtaking China in 1949. The generation that couldn’t go back to their homeland if they wanted to. This part is a shared history with Taiwan because that was the war the Nationalist Party lost and came to the island. Even the then-First Lady of ROC Madam Chiang, someone we all learned in history textbooks in Taiwan, made a cameo.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a very introspective story where Lily talks little and she goes about mundane things while thinking and having random thoughts. It was very relatable for me and I acutely feel every breath Lily took and every panic that shot through her head. It’s amazing how much I could feel through Lily, through Lo’s words. The story is beautiful, telling a fictionalized generational history of queer Chinese American women, a group often erased in historical records, in the 1950s San Francisco through Lily Hu’s. In this book, Lo gave voice to people like Lily Hu, and all the people who came before us (as in queer people).
I absolutely love the Cantonese and Mandarin scattered throughout the story. In print, some of them were written in Traditional Chinese characters and not their romanized forms. I don’t think I’ve ever read any English books where I see Chinese characters in them. Zeller’s narration is also incredible. I love all the voices she gave the characters, the purposefully subtle accents for Joseph and Judy, Lily’s father and aunt, and how she slips seamlessly between languages. It was phenomenal.
The main romance is the most gripping for me, but there are also so many important elements in the book—Chinese American culture, anti-communism, queer gatherings, etc.—all in the 1950s. I love that the older gay women, despite treating Lily as an exotic novelty, are kindhearted and shared their experiences of what it means to be queer. The racism in the 1950s, still prevalent in 2021, is evident in everything Lily and her family go through. I wish I could say that Last Night at the Telegraph Club is very much a story in the history and the present world isn’t like that anymore but I couldn’t. It pains me how everything is still relevant now.
Lily and Kath. I don’t know what to say except that my heart weeps and sings for them. I imagine them staring into each other’s eyes whenever possible, unblinking with hope and love and tenderness.
Reading the title of the book still gives me an indescribable ache, like something physically pressing into my sternum, just as the name Kath makes me sigh. I wish we had gotten more at the ending but I also see the necessity of stopping where it did. There is hope and joy and yearning. Lily and Kath will live in my head where all their dreams become reality as they stay at each other’s side to this day, both reaching for the sky.
ZH-TW
與其說「電報夜店的最後一晚」(Last Night at the Telegraph Club) 是部關於胡麗麗與凱斯米勒 (Kathleen Miller) 的愛情故事，不如說是麗麗找尋身為華裔美人與女同志的雙重身份。
小說的序幕為 1950 年十三歲的麗麗與兒時好友林雪莉 (Shirley Lum) 與家人參與中國城小姐選美活動。這一章節某種程度上是整部小說的摘要：麗麗逐漸對於女人身體感到好奇以及和雪莉的互動。
當麗麗意外看到女扮男裝湯米安德魯 (Tommy Andrews) 在電報夜店的演出廣告時，她為之著迷，儘管並不了解原因。但麗麗將廣告以及其他報章夾在「太空探奇」(The Exploration of Space) 中，好似搜集所有夢想。新學期開始時，高等數學班上只剩兩名女學生——麗麗以及夢想成為飛行員的凱斯米勒。過去她們的生活完全沒有交集，但此時此刻，一切將完全不同。
想著凱斯的名字讓我忍不住嘆息。我想這顯示我對這個角色的眷戀。她是如此地溫柔與深情，而我希望本書更著重於她而少些雪莉的鏡頭。但也正是因為麗麗與凱斯在書中相處的時光有限讓她們的關係與連結更佳珍貴。透過麗麗第三人稱視角，我們看見她與凱斯因為對於數理的熱愛產生連結——麗麗想要從事太空相關研究而凱斯夢想飛行，而漸漸地，她們的友誼發展至前所未有的境界。
在各部分間有透過老一輩的視角講述過去的事件：麗麗的母親、父親、姑姑。這些章節將歷史背景帶入主要劇情，特別是這一代身受戰爭侵擾以及 1949 年中國共產黨佔領中國大陸。這一代的華裔無法回到中國。而這一部分也和臺灣歷史息息相關，不管是國共內戰還是出現在故事中的第一夫人蔣宋美齡。
「電報夜店的最後一晚」 非常著重於內心世界。麗麗並不多話，而很多時候也只是描述她從事一些生活瑣事時所思考的事情，抑或是突如其來的思緒。透過麗麗、透過作者的文字，我完完全全可以感受到麗麗經歷的每一切。也是透過麗麗的故事，我們能夠一瞥 1950 年代舊金山被歷史遺忘的華裔美人女同志們。作者讓這些歷史先驅者得以發聲。
我非常喜愛故事中時而出現的廣東話與普通話。在文字中，有些部分是用繁體字書寫，而非拼音。我從來沒有在任何其他本英文小說中看過中文字。說書者的朗讀也非常超群。我很喜歡她賦予角色的聲音、麗麗父親與姑姑的腔調，以及無縫穿梭於不同語言之間。
對我而言，主要的愛情故事是最引人入勝的部分，但書中也有其他非常重要的主題，包含 1950 年代的華裔美人文化、反共、同志聚會等等。雖然那些稍微年長的女同志們總是視麗麗為奇異特有種，她們依舊是好心人，也樂於分享身為同志的種種經歷。1950 年代的種族歧視在 2021 年的今天依舊普遍。我希望我能說「電報夜店的最後一晚」完完全全是個歷史故事而現今社會已不再如此，但我不能。想著今日仍與當時的點滴相似令我心痛。
麗麗與凱斯。我不知道能說什麼——我的心為之哭泣與歌頌。在我腦中，我想像她們無時無刻深情對望，眼中充滿希望、愛意與無比的溫柔。
看著本書的書名就讓我的胸口隱隱作痛，就像看著凱斯的名字讓我嘆息一樣。我多希望在故事的結尾能有更多的後續，但我也完全理解現有的最後一章是個完美的結局：有希望、有喜悅，也有渴望。麗麗與凱斯將深住我的腦中。在此，她們所有的夢想已然成真，而時至今日，相依相隨，一同伸向蒼穹。
Buddy read with Gabriella!
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