Shortcomings [Paperback]

Now a major motion picture directed by Randall Park


Adrian Tomines beloved New York Times Notable book was adapted into a major motion picture. With the screenplay written by the cartoonist, Shortcomings debuted at Sundance and appeared at the Tribeca Festival, both to great acclaim.


Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his longterm relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, its wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiralling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.Meticulously observed&The dialogue is pitchperfect and succinct. [Tomine is] daring in his restraint. The New York Times Book Review

Tomines genius is to strip his medium of every possible type of grandiosity or indulgence, and the result is that life itself floods in. His miseensc?ne rivals Eric Rohmers in its gentle precision, and his mastery of narrative time suggests Alice Munro. Shortcomings, as near as hed get to a grand statement, is as deceptively simple and perfect as a comic book gets. Jonathan Lethem

Few books have dealt with racial and sexual politicsand, specifically, Asian American masculinityas deftly as Shortcomings. Time

Compelling and laugh-out-loud hilarious. The Washington Post

Shortcomings is the best account ever of Asian American male angst (with some satirical takes on Asian American culture, too). Tomine is the Chekhov olc¡