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mitskacir's review against another edition
5.0
As a mixed-race Asian-American, this is a very important book to me. It’s one of the only fiction books I’ve read that speaks so truly to how I feel, articulating many things that I’ve not been able to. Davies does not shy away from the paradoxes and contradictions of being Asian-American, of being mixed-race. I find the last story, Pearl, to be particularly powerful in this regard. What is culture and what is its importance? Is cultural connection necessary because of its use as a defense mechanism in a racist America, or is creating cultural connection for this purpose an act of racism in itself? How and why can we both love and hate ourselves, our parents, our friends, our country? In each story, Davies is able to create unique character voices, although Davies’ self deprecating humor, which is both insightful and painful, comes through in each. In short, a reflective and challenging read.
daumari's review against another edition
4.0
Not so much a novel as four novellas in one (though weirdly, Leland Stanford does get mentioned in all of them I believe...), three historical fiction and one contemporary.
An overall theme with all is personal identity vs the perception of those around us and how congruent or dissimilar they may be. With the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype persisting, it's impossible to simply exist as a person; race may be a construct but its structural impacts are concrete. And how DO you measure identity? There is no metric for "Chineseness"; as I will periodically argue in community online blood quantum metrics are gross because I don't think I'm any more or less entitled to my heritage than a mixed race individual who has actual fluency with our heritage tongue, or an adoptee cutoff from knowing any family history. Having various heritage threads is not mutually exclusive either- being fourth generation American doesn't mean relinquishing a sense of standing on the shoulders of ancestors before me, or that I should let go of our generational poem. I also think considering your identity and sense of self should be for more than just those visually clocked as Other- I think about these things for the strangers who ask, "but where are you really from?" even though they're often not considered by the majority, and I'm curious about what it'd be like to move through spaces without being palpably self-conscious.
I do wish the novellas had more connective tissue between them, but that's more about my expectations coming in to this as a novel than the works themselves.
Gold- a mixed-Tanka boy named Ling is sold to work in a California laundry, eventually becoming manservant to a railroad baron where he has some realizations about what success means.
Silver- A series of vignettes, as actress Anna May Wong embarks on a trip to China to see her father while considering her film career so far. Some of these entries were very short.
Jade- the Vincent Chin murder, from the perspective of a fellow ABC friend who grew up with him and was present for the beating. A pondering on how death tends to turn memory into hagiography, but a victim's imperfections do not justify the violence.
Pearl- John is mixed race (Chinese and... Scandinavian-American iirc?), and his Irish-American wife Nola are in Beijing to adopt a baby girl. He ruminates on desirability, and what exactly the other adoptive parents in the group aim to achieve by planning on culturally educating their new children versus his own experiences- something that resonated with me as I recall a local Lunar New Year celebration where white Mormon families with their adopted girls dressed in full cheongsam/outfits while I, a grungy preteen had a graphic tee and jeans on. An unexpected event occurs and John & Nola must make a quick choice. This one might be my favorite, if only because I'm currently expecting our first child, and while they might share some experiences with me, they'll navigate the world perceived differently than either me or my spouse.
An overall theme with all is personal identity vs the perception of those around us and how congruent or dissimilar they may be. With the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype persisting, it's impossible to simply exist as a person; race may be a construct but its structural impacts are concrete. And how DO you measure identity? There is no metric for "Chineseness"; as I will periodically argue in community online blood quantum metrics are gross because I don't think I'm any more or less entitled to my heritage than a mixed race individual who has actual fluency with our heritage tongue, or an adoptee cutoff from knowing any family history. Having various heritage threads is not mutually exclusive either- being fourth generation American doesn't mean relinquishing a sense of standing on the shoulders of ancestors before me, or that I should let go of our generational poem. I also think considering your identity and sense of self should be for more than just those visually clocked as Other- I think about these things for the strangers who ask, "but where are you really from?" even though they're often not considered by the majority, and I'm curious about what it'd be like to move through spaces without being palpably self-conscious.
I do wish the novellas had more connective tissue between them, but that's more about my expectations coming in to this as a novel than the works themselves.
Gold- a mixed-Tanka boy named Ling is sold to work in a California laundry, eventually becoming manservant to a railroad baron where he has some realizations about what success means.
Silver- A series of vignettes, as actress Anna May Wong embarks on a trip to China to see her father while considering her film career so far. Some of these entries were very short.
Jade- the Vincent Chin murder, from the perspective of a fellow ABC friend who grew up with him and was present for the beating. A pondering on how death tends to turn memory into hagiography, but a victim's imperfections do not justify the violence.
Pearl- John is mixed race (Chinese and... Scandinavian-American iirc?), and his Irish-American wife Nola are in Beijing to adopt a baby girl. He ruminates on desirability, and what exactly the other adoptive parents in the group aim to achieve by planning on culturally educating their new children versus his own experiences- something that resonated with me as I recall a local Lunar New Year celebration where white Mormon families with their adopted girls dressed in full cheongsam/outfits while I, a grungy preteen had a graphic tee and jeans on. An unexpected event occurs and John & Nola must make a quick choice. This one might be my favorite, if only because I'm currently expecting our first child, and while they might share some experiences with me, they'll navigate the world perceived differently than either me or my spouse.
canaanmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
Four stories united by a growing consciousness of an Asian-American identity. Moving quickly over several generations you see a world changing even if you can't quite believe yet that it's changing for the better.
You see characters struggling under both overt and hidden prejudice in white society but also the fact that the idea of "China" is just as foreign to those who spend their lives in America.
Meanwhile the ending got intensely personal for me even though it wasn't about cultural identity anymore.
The research needed to write about real people in history is deftly woven through and the imagination to fill in the gaps is more than sufficient.
You see characters struggling under both overt and hidden prejudice in white society but also the fact that the idea of "China" is just as foreign to those who spend their lives in America.
Meanwhile the ending got intensely personal for me even though it wasn't about cultural identity anymore.
The research needed to write about real people in history is deftly woven through and the imagination to fill in the gaps is more than sufficient.
caffee's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This made me think, I really enjoyed the different timelines and characters. I was invested in all of them and had to look up the real life characters.
basilkumquat's review against another edition
3.0
At no point in the book was I not painfully aware that I was reading something that simultaneously felt like it was moving nowhere and that it was forced to fit historical characters without much additional development. Although the concept of small vignettes throughout Asian American history drew me to this book, it seemed like the stories were completely unrelated beyond this intent.
meeshsassycat's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful, vivid writing. I enjoyed each of the stories and the different ways they demonstrate what it means to be Chinese or Chinese-American in different times and places. The book articulately evokes important questions about race, racism, and racial identity. Very happy I read this book.
marianne_louise's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
A great distraction from your own life! Fully immersive and well researched context with lots of nods to real life events. An interesting reflection on Asian American identity from 4 different plotlines. I preferred 2 of the stories but thought they were all strong.
cseibs's review against another edition
3.0
A strong start, but I was less thrilled as it wore on. The latter stories felt a little too much like therapy sessions - introspection and angst, but without the narrators interacting with their world much so the stories fell flat. The two earlier stories also seemed to embrace the historical context more than the Vincent Chin story, which ultimately was told from the perspective of the present day, and I think that may have dulled it a bit. I think the historical fiction elements were done extremely well as Davies embodied the voices of these long gone characters extremely well. I just wished we'd seen more of that.
erincataldi's review against another edition
3.0
Davies (The Welsh Girl) deftly weaves together four stories of the Chinese American experience to create a rich tapestry of what it takes to find acceptance in oneself and in one's country. A nineteenth century laundry worker, a Chinese film star, a friend of someone killed in a hate crime, and a half-Chinese man looking to adopt a Chinese baby; tell their stories of life in America and how their "Chinese-ness" has helped defined their American experience. Their stories are all uniquely different, yet uniquely the same; racism, questions of identity, the need for acceptance, the need to be "all-American" surface in all four stories. Raw, witty, honest, and unflinching, The Fortunes manages to capture the heart of growing up Chinese American in this powerful novel. Impressively narrated by the talented, James Chen, who brings an authenticity to the story with his numerous accents and reserved, yet powerful telling of the story. Davies proves that he's a masterful storyteller in this emotionally gripping novel.
jillcaesar's review against another edition
4.0
A beautifully-written rumination on Asian-American identity. I liked the first and second stories best ('Gold' is the best-written, while 'Silver' just appealed to me personally). My least favourite was the last story ('Pearl') - I felt ambivalent about the main character and somewhat negatively about his wife. But that's the beauty of this novel, I think - the characters in this book are flawed, realistic human beings. Definitely a book to read if you want to read more about Asian (specifically Chinese) American perspectives.