That Man in Our Lives

That Man in Our Lives is a 2016 novel by Xu Xi. It concerns a group of characters reacting to the disappearance of a Sinophile American man who gave away his money to charity.
According to Jennifer Lee of "The Asian American Literary Review", the novel "is never really about Gordie’s disappearance, but about the problem of knowledge and authority in this world of global interconnection."
Plot.
A different character or group of characters is the third person narrative focus on each section of the book, or an act. There are a total of five acts, with an intermission located between the third and fourth acts.
The novel's action starts with the disappearance of Gordon "Gordie" Ashberry, a wealthy bachelor. Minnie Chang (Zhang Lianhe) writes a book about Gordon after Gordon decides to donate his remaining money.
He disappears on a stopover at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, while traveling from New York City to Hong Kong. Gordon began using a new passport with a new name, left behind his coat, passport, and wallet, and flew to Detroit. His self-imposed exile resulted in friends Harold Haight and Larry Woo and other characters to look for him. After Gordon disappears, his godson Peter goes to Hong Kong to look for Gordon while starting a study program as a cover. A subsequent chapter focuses on Minnie Chang.
Characters.
Jenn Lee Smith of "Hyphen Magazine" stated that "The main characters all seem to be highly accomplished, wealthy and/or privileged in some way", and all admire Gordon and bear "personal motivations for remembering and fawning over him". According to Jennifer Lee, the characters are "in transit between cultures and languages, sometimes resisting and sometimes embracing the legacies of their parents, their countries, their personal histories."
Reception.
Milne wrote that "That Man in Our Lives" is "an ambitious, witty and generous novel, which also has enough mystery to keep even somebody with 20th-century tastes turning the pages."
"Publishers Weekly" stated that the "engrossing, whirlwind metafictional tale effectively demonstrates the far-reaching effects of politics and culture on the smallest, most personal aspects of our lives."