Power Q & A with Wayne Ng

Crime Writers of Canada Award-winning author Wayne Ng’s highly-anticipated Toronto-based novel, Johnny Delivers, is being released this November 1st by Guernica Editions, and it has already been included in CBC's and the 49th Shelf's Most-Anticipated Fall Fiction lists.

Set in 1977, Johnny Delivers tells the absorbing story of 18-year-old Johnny Wong—the son of Chinese immigrants to Canada—who calls on the spirit of Bruce Lee to help him navigate the still relevant challenges of racism and how it permeates our interiority, our institutions, our relationships, and our livelihood.

This book is exciting and heart-wrenching and readers are loving it! A favourite element of the story is undoubtedly Johnny’s conversations with Bruce Lee, so we wanted to ask Wayne, “Why Bruce?:

We are happy to welcome Wayne to our Power Q & A series today to answer.

Q: Why did you choose Bruce Lee to serve as Johnny’s moral guide and confidant?

A: Most kids need a hero. In the standalone prequel, Letters From Johnny, 11-year-old Johnny worked through his problems by writing letters to hockey icon Dave Keon, just as I once did. Now, as an angst-filled teen on the cusp of manhood in Johnny Delivers, Johnny turns to Bruce Lee—a larger-than-life hero I also admired as an unstoppable fighter. What made Bruce especially significant was his defiance of the stereotypical portrayal of Asians in popular culture as humble, passive, and helpless.

With Johnny Delivers, I wanted to show that Bruce Lee was more than just a trailblazing martial arts film icon. He was also a philosopher, a writer, and family man. And, like any hero, he had his flaws—something Johnny struggles to accept. Since the novel is ultimately a coming-of-age and family story, Bruce is the glue that holds his relationship with his father. I wanted Johnny's evolving view of Bruce to reflect his journey—where their growth connects and separates them.

More about Johnny Delivers:

Eighteen-year-old Johnny Wong’s dead-end life consists of delivering Chinese food and holding his chaotic family together in Toronto. When his sweet but treacherous Auntie, the mahjong queen, calls in their family debt, he fears the family will lose the Red Pagoda restaurant and break apart. 

Invoking the spirit of Bruce Lee and in cahoots with his stoner friend Barry, Johnny tries to save his family by taking up a life of crime delivering weed with a side of egg rolls. He chases his first love, but his hands are already full with his emotionally distant mother, his dream-crushing father, and his reckless, sardonic little sister.

As he fights to stay ahead of his Auntie, sordid family secrets unfold. With lives on the line, the only way out is an epic mahjong battle. While Johnny is on a mission to figure out who he is and what he wants, he must learn that help can come from within and that our heroes are closer than we think.

Dripping with 1970s nostalgia, Johnny Delivers is a gritty and humorous standalone sequel to the much-loved and award-winning Letters From Johnny.

More about Wayne Ng:

Wayne Ng was born in downtown Toronto to Chinese immigrants who fed him a steady diet of bitter melon and kung fu movies. Ng is a social worker who lives to write, travel, eat, and play, preferably all at the same time. He is an award-winning author and traveler who continues to push his boundaries from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and goldfish.

Ng is the author of The Family Code, shortlisted for the Guernica Prize; Letters From Johnny, winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award for Best Crime Novella and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award and Johnny Delivers.