Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - The Family Chao

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

6 reviews

himpersonal's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book leaves me a bit speechless. I have a lot of complicated emotions tangled up between Americanism, racism, filial piety, what is family, who deserves what, the perfect crime, a deserving victim, xenophobia, stereotypes, sibling loyalty, and a thousand things that I'm not sure anyone who isn't an immigrant might ever understand and a thousand things that perhaps only Asians from Buddhist and Confucian based cultures might understand.

I would like to take a moment to dispel an unfair and moralistic stereotype (because this racist assumption came up in the book): Koreans do not eat dogs!!!!! Yes, at one point in time, we ate dogs, but it is now illegal. First of all, dogs as pets is a relatively new concept in Korea, and back when people were far poorer, too poor to house and feed a pet, dogs were considered animal meat like any other animal that is consumed. Heck, the really poor ate grasshoppers too. Secondly, Koreans used to eat dogs as an alternative to cows, given cows were a more highly valued animal and supply was limited and protein was nonetheless needed. It was also believed to be medicinally beneficial many, many, many years ago (like most of you weren't born yet, many years ago). Lastly, as a vegetarian, I have to tell all those hypocrite meat eaters out there that eating a dog as meat is as unappealing to me as eating a cow or a pig or a chicken. In fact, to Hindus, all the hamburger eating Americans are scandalous. French eat horses and frogs (both being domesticated animals for many people around the world). Japan, though illegal, has been known to eat whale. My goddaughter's nanny ate guinea pigs in Peru. People eat food however they can to survive or because it's part of their culture. I might look at someone and ask why they can't just eat broccoli and beans. Stop being so judgmental and try to look at the world from outside your head! (Yes, this conversation REALLY annoys me, and I've had it one time too many.)

Rant over. Back to the book. I found this book very clever and deeply disturbing (and not just because I had to wag my educating finger at anyone who still thinks Koreans eat dogs!). It was disturbing because it upset the model minority, brought forward assumed and accepted racist notions, and asks us to consider how much guilt is enough and how much of that guilt needs to be paid for in blood. It's a lot to think about. I forget where I heard of this book, but I'm so glad I did. I'll be looking for this author again!

Content Warnings

bunnypearl's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Overall, The Family Chao is a decent read. It clearly addresses racism directed towards immigrants, specifically Chinese immigrants, and does a good job of fleshing out the Chaos' specific problems so that the readers will (from an outside view) understand their struggles. The story moves quite slow, though, taking a long time to get to the pivotal event that the summary tells you about. There are decent sections of description here and there, mostly of the food or of someone's mental state, but I can't say it makes up for the way I had to drag myself through this book. Something about it felt incredibly difficult to read. Maybe it's the fact that the breathing spaces between events feel too slow, or maybe I just didn't like the characters. Whatever it was, I didn't feel too compelled to sit down and read big chunks of it at once.
On top of that, I didn't like the middle brother, Ming. He had a lot of things to work through but clearly wasn't too self-aware until the end, considering how often he exhibited signs of internalized racism and presented a very condescending attitude in many of his scenes.
I'm sure this would be a good story to somebody else, but I found it strongly lacking in the "mystery" department--which is the genre this book is listed as--and generally quite flat, despite all that occurs over the course of the narrative. I sort of wish I'd liked this book more, but on the same hand, I don't care that much about it. Sometimes you just have to get through a book you don't love and move on.
Side note: I'm pretty sure the phrase "pansexual demon" was used somewhere in the first few pages. I do not want to see that again.

Content Warnings

mackie9999's review against another edition

The characters are too mean

Content Warnings

alisonvh's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m going to have to sit with this book for a while before deciding how I feel about it. Overall I think I liked it. It’s very well written, and I found myself sucked into the mystery. But it’s also intense, so I need to follow it up with something light.

Content Warnings