INTERVIEW: Dominic Lim by Giovanna Lomanto
All the Right Notes
Dominic Lim
Forever
Interview by
Giovanna Lomanto
This summer, my eight-hour flight didn’t just send me to SFO—it sent me directly into the mind of Quito Cruz, bumbling protagonist and musician on-the-rise. I was transported back into my own family’s bustling home (which sounded quite like Quito’s, a sweet tearjerker of a father to complete the picture). Quito was real, if only for a moment, because his life as a closeted student gallivanting in the school’s musical theater was shockingly familiar. It felt like a skin I could slip back on, chameleon-style.
In Dominic Lim’s novel All the Right Notes, Quito Cruz lives and works in his hometown, maintaining a close relationship with his father, who passes down a pride in Filipino heritage and welcomes his son’s queer identity with open arms. When Quito’s father wants to host a concert for Quito’s alma mater, he suggests Quito reach out and ask estranged friend-turned-Hollywood-star Emmett Aoki to perform as a special guest. What follows is a romp of a queer romance, which fills every gaping hole in the closet with mountains of layers—tension and subtext, the writing of a literary fiction novel, gut-wrenching moments, pure and unadulterated glee.
Immediately, I’m beyond excited to meet Dominic Lim, the genius behind a new stage in representation for queer Asian music geeks. If this book sounds familiar to you, you would likely have seen it on every anticipated read list for 2023. We’re talking Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, Entertainment Weekly—and the list goes on. And this isn’t to mention Dominic’s soaring career in music, through which he’s performed in ensembles far and wide while somehow managing to slip a master’s degree in as well. Dominic, in short, sounds like he could be a grumpy old man pushing his well-read glasses up his nose.
Luckily for me, I hopped onto a Zoom call to see a spry, smiling face on the other end. We’d been planning to meet in person—but health reasons had kept me from getting to shake his hand, and he was kind enough to meet me virtually, despite our eagerness to laugh in the same room. And laugh we did! Dominic is wildly funny, intensely eloquent, and could definitely run for president considering how badly I wanted to grab a beer with him. His desk is behind him—neat, tidy, and displaying a monitor with an open document ready for whatever writing comes next. Of the many questions I ask him, I find the most exciting to be about KARAOKE QUEEN, his second novel already in the works.
When it came time to transcribe our interview, I almost burst into tears. The recording was corrupted—only playing back muffled sounds of laughter. Fitting, that that was the only sound it recorded.
Dominic, as you’re reading this—I’m sorry that the world has been deprived of the deep innards we peeled out from our brains that Saturday morning. I guess it’ll be a sacred conversation to our minds alone. And yet, I wanted to still celebrate your book. What other way could I write a review? To respond to the book? And then I remembered: I could simply respond.
Following, you’ll find a poem inspired by All The Right Notes. It’s my love letter to love letters, the second chance I own after the aptly described “second-chance romance novel.” The heart of the novel is a piece of Dominic’s external talents—Dom has recorded the song “A Part I Play,” which is Quito’s theme song, and put it on Youtube for your viewing pleasures. The song speaks on the pressures of coming out, the fear of disappointment, and the vulnerability of sharing. I hope my take on it follows in the same emotional poignancy:
Dear Dominic:
quito writes it’s a part he plays,
like my ingenue typecast chameleon suit.
quito writes they’re all waiting
for curtained fears to eat the stage
alive. bright and sparkling
with their shame. what they can’t say
to the left of the director’s chair.
what happens when you trade the years you’re hiding
with the strongest fingers of your right hand?
it’s about bitter beginnings and the sour glint
of a school-age crush—aptly named
for the weight on the chest, more weight,
more weight, more weight, we’ll shout
like we’re in the crucible. giles corey said
that he’ll take the torture to show they could kill him
before he would crumble. so do i.
quito writes he’ll try to be strong
and we are. we will be.
it’s a part we play—but damn,
if we could play anything we were
it would be the third grade playground,
and i’d look exactly like i do
today.
All the Right Notes sings with the voice of queer love, internal battles of public identity, and the pressures of masculinity—loud, quiet, and every space in between. The emotional stakes are insurmountably large, and each subsequent page of the novel brings an increasingly riveting take on romance. The sentences are clear. The emotions are palpable. The music persists, and belts out songs we’ve always longed to hear.
