I received Helen Wan's book as an ARC in the fall. I devoured it in a few days, mainly because it featured a strong female of color protagonist in a corporate setting. There was quite a bit of truth to the story, and women, not just ones of color know just how difficult it is to survive in what has become a world ruled by men. Her book spoke to me in ways I haven't felt were truthfully portrayed in our media, so we at Twinja Book Reviews are glad to introduce her, so that you might come to know her through her writing too.
1. First off, tell those who may be meeting you for the first time, who you are, and anything you would like them to know about you.
It’s a pleasure to meet you! Thanks for inviting me to spend some time with the readers of Twinja Book Reviews. I’m Helen Wan, and I’m a writer, lawyer, and new mom. My first novel, THE PARTNER TRACK -- about a young woman of color’s journey in corporate America – was just published by St. Martin’s Press. Honestly, I never expected to give birth to a first book and a first baby in the same year, but if you want to make God laugh, just tell her your plans.
2. What prompted you to write this book in the first place? Were there events in your life that led to the first draft of this book? Or was it a story that you felt needed to be told?
I definitely feel it’s a story whose time has come. What prompted me to write it? Over a decade ago, as a 25-year-old fresh out of law school, having just landed at my first job at a huge corporate law firm, I quickly realized that all the skills that had served me so well until that point in my life – knowing how to study hard, get good grades, take tests well – were suddenly out the window. ALL of us were “good at school,” so that alone wasn’t good enough anymore. There were predictable, observable patterns of who among us was succeeding and who was not, who quickly found powerful mentors to take them under their wing, who did not, and it all had to do with how well and how quickly one could master the art of fitting in to that corporate culture, perfecting all those “soft skills” that are simply not teachable in school. So, if you didn’t happen to grow up with a background where you’d been exposed to this culture and its set of unwritten rules, you had to teach them to yourself, ASAP. I looked around and realized there should be some sort of “decoder ring” – a primer or handbook for those of us who felt like fish out of water in that very privileged, rarefied environment. I remember walking into a bookstore trying to find a novel about how to succeed as a young person of color in corporate America while remaining authentic and true to yourself. Finding none, I decided to write that book myself.
