Book Review: The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama
In The Brightest Star, Gail Tsukiyama shines a long-overdue spotlight on the life of Anna May Wong — the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood — in a novel that is both a lyrical character study and a poignant exploration of identity, ambition, and resilience.
Born in Los Angeles’s Chinatown in the early 1900s, Anna May Wong grew up straddling two worlds: the traditions of her Chinese immigrant family and the allure of the silver screen. From the moment she steps onto a movie set as a teenager, Anna is determined to rise — even as she faces repeated rejections, racist typecasting, and the painful realization that Hollywood was not made for someone like her.
Tsukiyama’s prose is elegant and restrained, capturing the emotional landscape of Anna’s life with quiet grace. Through richly rendered scenes — from silent film sets to international voyages, lonely hotel rooms to red-carpet premieres — we witness Anna’s triumphs and heartbreaks, her fierce independence and her quiet longing for acceptance. The novel beautifully balances historical fact with imagined interiority, allowing readers to truly inhabit Anna’s experience.
What makes The Brightest Star shine brightest is its emotional resonance. Tsukiyama does not portray Anna as flawless or tragic, but as fully human — defiant, witty, vulnerable, and enduring. Her story is not only about breaking barriers in Hollywood, but about the cost of visibility, the ache of never quite belonging, and the unrelenting pursuit of one’s voice in a world that prefers silence.
Both timely and timeless, The Brightest Star is a tender, powerful tribute to a woman who carved a path where none existed. Gail Tsukiyama has crafted a moving, meticulously researched novel that honors Anna May Wong’s legacy — and ensures her light continues to shine.
About The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama
At the dawn of a new century, America is falling in love with silent movies, including young Wong Liu Tsong. The daughter of Chinese immigrants who own a laundry, Wong Liu and her older sister Lew Ying (Lulu) are taunted and bullied for their Chinese heritage. But while Lulu diligently obeys her parents and learns to speak Chinese, Wong Liu sneaks away to the local nickelodeons, buying a ticket with her lunch money and tips saved from laundry deliveries. By eleven Wong Liu is determined to become an actress and has already chosen a stage name: Anna May Wong. At sixteen, Anna May leaves high school to pursue her Hollywood dreams, defying her disapproving father and her Chinese traditional upbringing—a choice that will hold emotional and physical consequences.
After a series of nothing parts, nineteen-year-old Anna May gets her big break—and her first taste of Hollywood fame—starring opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad. Yet her beauty and talent isn’t enough to overcome the racism that relegates her to supporting roles as a helpless, exotic butterfly or a vicious, murderous dragon lady while Caucasian actresses in yellowface” are given starring roles portraying Asian women. Though she suffers professionally and personally, Anna May fights to win lead roles, accept risqué parts, financially support her family, and keep her illicit love affairs hidden—even as she finds freedom and glittering stardom abroad, and receives glowing reviews across the globe.
Powerful, poignant, and imbued with Gail Tsukiyama’s warmth and empathy, The Brightest Star reimagines the life of the first Asian American screen star whose legacy endures—a remarkable and inspiring woman who broke barriers and became a shining light in Hollywood history.
