Late Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

 

Late Night at the Telegraph Club

April 14th, 2024

Late Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo 2021, Historical Fiction, 394 pages

Winner of the 2021 National Book Award in Young People's Literature

Late Night at the Telegraph Club centers around two teens living in San Francisco during the 1950s: Lily Hu and Kath Miller. Lily, a Chinese American teen, aspires to one day work in a laboratory like her aunt to focus on space exploration. Lily's family has rather strict expectations of her dress code and Chinese identity, and Lily abides. All that changes when Lily sees Tommy Andrew's performance at the Telegraph Club with Kath. Suddenly, Lily begins to question her own sexuality--and exactly what her relationship is with Kath. However, Lily must continue to be the perfect Chinese American daughter after the FBI confiscates her father's immigration papers for treating a "communist patient" in his hospital. Lily and Kath must make a decision: risk everything for exploring their identities and their love, or end it all together.

I chose to read Late Night at the Telegraph Club for one main reason: it was different that anything I had ever read before. Typically, historical fiction is not my go-to genre. Neither is romance, to be completely candid. However, I was really excited to read a book with two LGTBQ+ characters, one of whom is Asian, and see how their romance would play out during a time period when homophobia and racism against Chinese people were at an all time high. 

Teaching and Content Considerations:

I would suggest Late Night at the Telegraph Club for our high school readers due to a few instances of sexual content and historical context. I think older readers would be able to better understand the societal pressures Lily is facing as a queer, Chinese teen after learning more about the Red-Scare and communism in class. Late Night at the Telegraph Club would would work quite well as a literature circle novel (perhaps in a historical unit or nonfiction unit) or for independent reading. I would recommend this novel to any student who is a fan of historical fiction, LGTBQ+ characters (and LGTBQ+ history), romance, or students themselves who are driven, independent thinking women!

Instructional Ideas

Diving into Timelines: At the beginning of many chapters, Lo includes timelines of real events that occurred in the United States mixed with major events in her characters' lives. Many of these events are either tied to bills regarding the LGTBQ+ community, accomplishments leading up to space travel, and events surrounding the Red Scare. Any time a timeline appears, students could select one real event from the timeline to learn more about. After gathering basic information about their chosen event and finishing the section of the book, students would then have to infer why the author included that event before the subsequent chapters. Students would dive into the author's purpose of the timeline and how it added further conflict or meaning to the character's own life events.

San Francisco LGTBQ+ History, Clubs, & Icons: After doing some very brief research of my own, I discovered that San Fransciso was and continues to be one of the most progressive and LGTBQ+ friendly cities in the United States. It makes total sense why Lo chose San Francisco to be the setting of her story. Students could pick an aspect of San Francisco's LGTBQ+ history to research and share out in small groups. That, or teachers could pull articles about San Francisco's gay/lesbian bars in the 1950s, LGBTQ icons at the time, laws combatting the community, and more for students to learn about and teach each other through a jigsaw activity (students must become experts on one topic and then present to their "home" group). 

Possible Read Aloud Passages

• Page 68: "Your father didn't want me to tell you, but I think you're old enough to know the truth. The FBI took his citizenship papers....They wanted him to sign a statement admitting that Calvin--his patient is a Communist, but your father wouldn't do it."
• Lily's mother tells her the real reason why she isn't allowed to hang out with a certain group of young adults anymore: they are presumed Communists. When Lily's father treats one of them as his patient and refuses to confirm he is a communist, his citizenship papers are taken away. This is suspenseful passage that allows students to discuss the different types of conflicts that are infiltrating Lily's life--and if it will affect Lily's future actions.
• Page 146: "It was the yet that made Lily's skin flush warm. The knowledge that despite the clothes that Tommy wore, despite the attitude that invited everyone in the room to gaze at her, she was not a man. It felt unspeakably charged, as if al of Lily's most secret desires had been laid bare on stage."
• Lily finally gets to see Tommy perform at the Telegraph Club. Lily feels liberated in a way she has never felt before! This is an excellent scene to analyze the impact this moment will have on Lily's sense of identity and her relationship with friends and family.
• Page 378: "She felt Kath's hand letting go of hers over and over again, her fingers sliding through hers over and over. Everything she and Kath had done could be erased so easily. It could be erased by her parents uprooting her from her home and sending her aware so that Kath would not know where she was. It could be erased because they were her parents and she was their daughter, and they loved her, and she could not disobey them even if it broke her heart."
• (SPOILER): Lily's parents find out that she is a lesbian and decide to send her away with her Aunt Judy in Pasadena after the Telegraph Club is raided by the police. Lily laments that her entire relationship with Kath , and her true sense of identity, will be stolen away from her. 

Thoughts and Reflections

I am normally not a big romance novel person, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Late Night at the Telegraph Club. As a women myself, I LOVED that Lily and Kath were two driven, intelligent females who yearned to push boundaries in their future professions. Lo also did an incredible job at showing just how important the growing LGTBQ+ scene was and the discrimination individuals had to endure. By emphasizing Lily's Chinese heritage and the looming paranoia of Communism, Lo introduces young adult readers to entirely new conflicts that they may have never seen in literature before!

After reading this novel, I have so many topics I need to learn more about. To begin, I am super interested in reading more about the history of San Francisco's LGTBQ+ communities and the places/people that may have inspired the "Telegraph Club" and Tommy Andrews. I also feel like I need to brush up on my history in general regarding the Red Scare in the United States. After reading about what happened to Lily's father and his immigration papers, I am curious to learn if this was a common threat many Chinese Americans faced during this time period.