See You in the Cosmos (2017)

See You in the Cosmos is a 2017 epistolary Bildungsroman novel by Chinese-American author Jack Cheng. It is his second book, and his first for children. Written as transcription, the story follows astronomy-loving pre-teen Alex Petroski as he embarks on a journey to understand the life of his late father and records the journey in notes on his iPod to launch into space.

Cheng composed the initial idea for the novel in 2012, after seeing a photo of the Pale Blue Dot, and was further inspired by a road trip he took in 2013. Although it was published as children's literature, the book handles themes including sex, violence, and mental illness. The novel was received positively, and won or was nominated for several accolades. Alex's characterization were praised, with the narrative style getting more mixed reviews.

Background

Jack (born Yuan) Cheng was born in Shanghai, China, in around 1984, and immigrated to Troy, Michigan, when he was five, with his younger brother. After a failed attempt to enter the University of Michigan Business School, he attended classes about communications, and went to New York City in 1998 for an advertising internship. He also became a copywriter there. Feeling that he "was losing this artistic, entrepreneurial drive", he moved to the freelance industry in late 2008.

In 2013, after releasing his debut novel These Days, a romance novel based on Cheng's experience as a Midwestern tech worker based in New York, he started writing See You in the Cosmos. He got the idea for the novel in 2012 at his parents' house during a Thanksgiving gathering. His brother's room had Pale Blue Dot on his shelf. Seeing the photograph reminded him of an episode of Radiolab about the photograph. The next day, he woke up with the idea of the novel in his head and worked on it immediately. He also cited "ambient sound" as one of the bases of the story. Cheng recalled that part of the novel was based on a road trip he took in the Southwestern United States in mid-2013, where he mimicked his late father who once took a Greyhound Lines service from Los Angeles to Detroit, wanting to know the full story of his family "and how I came to be where I am".

Cheng researched topics of social work and child protective services, some of the main plot points of the novel, with the help of several friends. He also credited various people for "guiding me through unfamiliar territory, and for helping peel open the layers to find what the book was really about".

Although he is an Asian-American, Cheng did not create the novel based on Asian-American representation. He said: "I think we’re still at the beginning where in America the stories written by Asian Americans form only a tiny part of their experience [of growing up in America]. There are other experiences where our 'Asian-ness' doesn't necessarily have a significant role in the story, and See You in the Cosmos is one example". He hoped that minority writers dilute their idea scope to a wider range than just their ethnicity.

Throughout the writing process, Cheng did not have any insights into what the novel's target demographic would be, saying that "It was more the story seemed interesting and the character happened to be eleven". After submitting the manuscript to his literary agent, Jessica Craig, she told Cheng that it should be submitted as a young adult novel, and copyedited it to make it more friendly towards the 10–14 age range. Few further edits were done; however, there are still some: Cheng thought of the manuscript as a "lucid dream", where after witnessing it he then "go back and make sense of it". Cheng compared to, having been a juvenile book but with adult themes, with works like The Little Prince and Spirited Away, which "have these qualities of meaning one thing for a kid and then have this depth and complexity for the adult".

Plot

Alexander Petroski, an 11-year-old European-Filipino-American, lives in fictional Rockview, Colorado with his mother Karen. His brother, 24-year old Ronnie, is in Los Angeles being a sports agent. Alex has a puppy, Carl Sagan, named after his idol astrophysicist. He has a homemade rocket, Voyager 3, in which he plans to attach an iPod spray-painted in gold inspired by the Voyager Golden Record, where he has been busy recording various audio on, and launch it at the Southwest High-Altitude Rocket Festival (SHARF). Alex embarks with Carl to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the festival is located. At the train, he befriends Zen buddhist Zed, who after taking a vow of silence only communicates with a chalkboard. Zed brings him to SHARF, where his roommate friend Steve will be launching a rocket which their roommate Nathan designed. Alex's rocket crashes seconds after launch, though his iPod is unscathed.

Per Ancestry.com, Alex's dad Joseph David Petroski is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Having little knowledge of him, Alex begs Steve to drive him there. At Vegas, Carl goes missing; the search for him prompts Alex to find his dad and ask for help. He asks a woman named Terra, who is revealed to be Joseph's daughter, thus Alex's half-sister. Terra was born to Joseph and his first wife Donna, and after his death, Donna moved on to another man, Howard. Alex and Terra gets along quickly, and go to Los Angeles with Zed and Steve. Steve (despite having a girlfriend) plans to confess his feelings for Terra, but seeing Nathan talking with her leads him to believe that they are in love. After punching Nathan, Steve belittles Alex, mentioning the logistical aspect of rocketry. Alex passes out, and Terra cuts Steve off from Alex.