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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The third part was a coincidentally appropriate counterpoint to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.
I thought this was a great book. It is set in 1930s-1942 Vancouver. Three siblings in an immigrant Chinese family tells their perspectives on life. It is really three interrelated short stories. The first third is told by the daughter of the family and the special friendship she has with an old men starting when she is 6 and ending when she is 9. The next third is told by the adopted middle brother and covers from the death of his real mother (hard for me to read) to the strength and confidence he gains as a teen from boxing. The last third is told by the youngest brother from ages 6-10. He was the closest to his grandmother and has the most difficulty being Chinese but not understanding the customs because he has never lived there. This book was well written and nicely captures the difficulties of second generation immigrants.
Please excuse me for some vagueness, and if I make some minor factual errors. Immediately after finishing The Jade Peony, I loaned it to my mother to read, and since she lives in Waterloo and I'm now back at home in Toronto, I'm unable to have it in front of me while I write this (and I don't take notes while I read). So: I once wrote on this blog that I'm not interested in literature as social work, and I'm certainly not interested in an author behaving like my case worker, and that's what a lot of The Jade Peony felt like to me. I wasn't just supposed to be reading a decent novel about Chinese people, I was supposed to be absorbing a culture, learning about history, becoming a better person. Like broccoli, it wasn't actually bad, but knowing it was supposed to be good for me made me not want to finish it.
But finish it I did.
It's difficult to write in the voice of a child. Children are not simply minature adults, and they certainly aren't stupid. There's an extremely delicate balance that has to be maintained; children don't see the same things we do, the way we do, and writing them as though they do is unconvincing at best. What details will they pick out as important? How will they interpret those details? Choy has an especially difficult task, because he chooses not one just child's voice, but three. Additionally, a great many of his readers may not be Chinese, and the novel takes place in a time that those readers most likely don't have any direct experience of. He has to include sufficient cultural and historical detail to situate the reader in a particular time and place, but he also has to balance it against what a child would pay attention to, how much they would understand, how they would understand it, and so on and so on. I find that there are moments when Choy is convincing, particularly with Jung-Sum and Jook-Liang, but most of the time he swerves around all over the place. Jook-Liang seems to miss far too much even though she's quite young, and Jung-Sum sees far too much for his age. The scene in which Jung-Sum runs to the cinema with his friend, leaving behind his beloved turtle, is told with far too much telling detail and sadness for what a child his age could have mustered, and I don't get the feeling that Choy is trying to present us with an unreliable adult narrator looking back at his past.
It wasn't a bad novel, and I enjoyed the clash between Poh-Poh's ideas of Old China and the new Canadian ways, but for the most part I found it unnecessarily sombre, and a little dull. I think it would have worked better as a collection of linked short stories. The chapters were almost episodic, and there didn't seem to be any definite narrative arc, except perhaps in the second half of Sek-Lung's section, which was so charged with meaning that it was as subtle as a freight train. To be honest I think this is the worst of the four Canada Reads books I've read so far. As much as I hated Generation X, at least it moved me in some way, made me react, even though that reaction was very strongly negative. It's frankly taken all my will to gather enough interest to write even this little bit about The Jade Peony. My final reaction is that I just simple don't care. It probably doesn't help that my edition (earlier than the one pictured here, with a much different cover) was riddled with typos, huge gaps between words, and other production oddities that made it feel more like I was reading an un-corrected proof.
I'm sorry to be so brief, but I just can't find anything I want to say about this novel. Typical CanLit, perhaps?
But finish it I did.
It's difficult to write in the voice of a child. Children are not simply minature adults, and they certainly aren't stupid. There's an extremely delicate balance that has to be maintained; children don't see the same things we do, the way we do, and writing them as though they do is unconvincing at best. What details will they pick out as important? How will they interpret those details? Choy has an especially difficult task, because he chooses not one just child's voice, but three. Additionally, a great many of his readers may not be Chinese, and the novel takes place in a time that those readers most likely don't have any direct experience of. He has to include sufficient cultural and historical detail to situate the reader in a particular time and place, but he also has to balance it against what a child would pay attention to, how much they would understand, how they would understand it, and so on and so on. I find that there are moments when Choy is convincing, particularly with Jung-Sum and Jook-Liang, but most of the time he swerves around all over the place. Jook-Liang seems to miss far too much even though she's quite young, and Jung-Sum sees far too much for his age. The scene in which Jung-Sum runs to the cinema with his friend, leaving behind his beloved turtle, is told with far too much telling detail and sadness for what a child his age could have mustered, and I don't get the feeling that Choy is trying to present us with an unreliable adult narrator looking back at his past.
It wasn't a bad novel, and I enjoyed the clash between Poh-Poh's ideas of Old China and the new Canadian ways, but for the most part I found it unnecessarily sombre, and a little dull. I think it would have worked better as a collection of linked short stories. The chapters were almost episodic, and there didn't seem to be any definite narrative arc, except perhaps in the second half of Sek-Lung's section, which was so charged with meaning that it was as subtle as a freight train. To be honest I think this is the worst of the four Canada Reads books I've read so far. As much as I hated Generation X, at least it moved me in some way, made me react, even though that reaction was very strongly negative. It's frankly taken all my will to gather enough interest to write even this little bit about The Jade Peony. My final reaction is that I just simple don't care. It probably doesn't help that my edition (earlier than the one pictured here, with a much different cover) was riddled with typos, huge gaps between words, and other production oddities that made it feel more like I was reading an un-corrected proof.
I'm sorry to be so brief, but I just can't find anything I want to say about this novel. Typical CanLit, perhaps?
The Jade Peony is all about characters and their environment. You would have a very different story if you took the book to Eastern Canada and tried to make it work there. Because it is a story of immigration and being from somewhere � a story of identity � you� d be hard-pressed to change the location. I think that it works and it opens your eyes to a whole different side of Canada and the government� s treatment of immigrants during this era. It is a story that would touch many Canadian people, whether they were born here or not, or their parents immigrated here or not.
Read my full review online: http://www.monniblog.com/2010/01/the-jade-peony/
Read my full review online: http://www.monniblog.com/2010/01/the-jade-peony/
Reading this book a second time really highlighted things that I didn't notice when I read this book last year. I really noticed the struggles with being a hyphenated identity, especially in Sek-Lung/Sekky's story. Events in the text really work to illustrate the challenges that come with forming a Canadian identity, and what a 'Canadian identity' really means. Awesome read. Probably one of my favorite books.
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In Vancouver, BC, 4 Chinese-Canadian children are raised by their grandmother, father, and "stepmother". It is during the depression and World War II. This novel is narrated by the three younger children: Jung (second son, adopted but fully integrated into the family), Liang (only daughter) and Sek-Lung (third son). Each describes their own experiences with those who mattered most in their lives, excluding mom ("stepmother"--oldest son Kiam's stepmother, but mother to the two youngest) and dad.
Each chafes under certain rules at home, and about certain ways the others are treated. But each is especially close to different people who help meet their own needs. Heartwarming and sweet, but the ending is a punch to the gut.
Each chafes under certain rules at home, and about certain ways the others are treated. But each is especially close to different people who help meet their own needs. Heartwarming and sweet, but the ending is a punch to the gut.