Broken Glass at Roland Hill

Synopsis of Roland Heights Shattered Glass

Written as a first-person account, this novel tells the story of a jobless, down-and-out middle-aged homeless man living in a tent at the foot of Puente Hills, struggling to get by in the Chinese communities of Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley. The protagonist spends most of his time in the parking lots of Roland Heights' two major commercial hubs, 99 Ranch Market and Diamond Plaza. Driven by the need to survive, he teams up with Lei, a Latino drifter, to smash car windows and steal goods to make ends meet. The gulf between rich and poor in the area is stark: supermarkets and restaurants bustle with life, while just a few steps away lies a dilapidated homeless encampment. As surveillance cameras are installed at one shopping center after another, their options for making a living dwindle. His partner suggests following Highway 60 to Diamond Bar and Walnut's upscale neighborhoods to look for opportunities. The protagonist moves constantly between bustling shopping centers and quiet residential enclaves, witnessing the vastly different lives of Chinese people from every stratum. After each successful theft, he is tormented by his conscience. He sees the despair and helplessness of car owners whose belongings have been stolen, while caught between the harsh realities of life at the bottom and his revulsion at the sins of theft. Torn again and again between scraping by and his own moral compass, he must ultimately choose whether to sink deeper into the shadows of Los Angeles or escape the gray mire of survival and find a new way forward.