The American Dream?

📖 The Scoop

As a child growing up in Malaysia, Shing Yin Khor had two very different ideas of what "America" meant.

The first looked a lot like Hollywood, full of beautiful people, sunlight, and freeways. The second looked more like The Grapes of Wrath—a nightmare landscape filled with impoverished people, broken-down cars, barren landscapes, and broken dreams.

Follow along on Shing's solo journey (small adventure-dog included) along the iconic Route 66, beginning in Santa Monica and ending up Chicago. What begins as a road trip ends up as something more like a pilgrimage in search of an American landscape that seems forever shifting and forever out of place.

“Just like Shing in real life, The American Dream? is quirky, honest, captivating, and filled with recollections of weird roadside statues.”—Carol L. Tilley, comics historian and information science professor

“Shing Yin Khor’s debut graphic memoir The American Dream? is the critical antidote to the whitewashed narratives of the great American road trip.” —Kristina Wong, performance artist and activist

“A lovely, deceptively simple road trip memoir that revels in quirky discovery and quiet adventure while grappling with the anger and longing of one immigrant’s experience.” —Greg Pak, comic book writer

"Khor takes that 'feeling of desperately searching for something better, for a new start,' and adapts it to their own 'pilgrimage' as immigrant and artist traveling historic Route 66 . . . in whimsical full-color detail."—starred, Booklist

"This is a book that will make you want to pack a bag, jump in your car and travel across America."—Geek Mom

A Forbes Best Graphic Novel of 2019

Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction / Comics & Graphic Novels / Biography (fancy, right?)