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mshusky's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I got this book as it was touted to be a Canadian literary work, an award winning novel. I had read the Jade Peony (also set in Vancouver) and was hoping for something similar.
This was the audio book, so maybe I needed to read the printed work as the narrator did not differentiate between the characters and I ended up having to jot down some of who the characters were as the story seemed to cover 5 generations of a Chinese family, and as it jumped randomly between the generations it was incredibly difficult to work out where in the story you were.
It was inconsistantly written, sometimes it was the literary work I was expecting, and then it was like reading a bizarre contemporary page turner. As for the incest plotline - what was the point of that?
This was the audio book, so maybe I needed to read the printed work as the narrator did not differentiate between the characters and I ended up having to jot down some of who the characters were as the story seemed to cover 5 generations of a Chinese family, and as it jumped randomly between the generations it was incredibly difficult to work out where in the story you were.
It was inconsistantly written, sometimes it was the literary work I was expecting, and then it was like reading a bizarre contemporary page turner. As for the incest plotline - what was the point of that?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment
raptorq's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Suicide
kierscrivener's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
An intergenerational tale of a Chinese Canadian family from 1892 to 1987, five generations of miscommunication, racism, immigration, misogyny and family secrets and tragedy.
It has parallels to One Hundred Years of Solitude a novel that I hated right down to the incest, but the absence of rape and the incest being a result of miscommunication and affairs, the sisters not knowing that the men they met were half brothers and their parents refusing to tell them the truth even after they enter romantic relationships with them made a plot line that normally disgusts me a thematic exploration. I understand why it existed and what she was trying to utilize through including it, and outside of the ickiness of Morgan when he was older I think it was handled with care and not the dangerous tropes that can so often exist whenever incest is present.
Lee as a female author focuses on the matriarchs of the family and the daughters, highlighting the misogyny and critiquing it and the racism and anti-immigration laws in Canada.
Overall, it was a compelling, thought provoking important book that reads like modern books in the vein of Everything I Never Told You, City of Girls, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, or The Vanishing Half despite being published in 1990. I do think that a reread could tighten up the plot for me as it was balancing five generations back and forth, but I found it generally easy to attach and interesting and Sky Lee told a story that were underheard in 1990 and now.
Content Warnings: incest, racism, anti-immigration, abuse of Asian workers, misogyny, affairs, miscarriage, death of children, adult-minor relationship, teen pregnancy, Asian and Indigenous slurs and probably some I am blanking on
It has parallels to One Hundred Years of Solitude a novel that I hated right down to the incest, but the absence of rape and the incest being a result of miscommunication and affairs, the sisters not knowing that the men they met were half brothers and their parents refusing to tell them the truth even after they enter romantic relationships with them made a plot line that normally disgusts me a thematic exploration. I understand why it existed and what she was trying to utilize through including it, and outside of the ickiness of Morgan when he was older I think it was handled with care and not the dangerous tropes that can so often exist whenever incest is present.
Lee as a female author focuses on the matriarchs of the family and the daughters, highlighting the misogyny and critiquing it and the racism and anti-immigration laws in Canada.
Overall, it was a compelling, thought provoking important book that reads like modern books in the vein of Everything I Never Told You, City of Girls, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, or The Vanishing Half despite being published in 1990. I do think that a reread could tighten up the plot for me as it was balancing five generations back and forth, but I found it generally easy to attach and interesting and Sky Lee told a story that were underheard in 1990 and now.
Content Warnings: incest, racism, anti-immigration, abuse of Asian workers, misogyny, affairs, miscarriage, death of children, adult-minor relationship, teen pregnancy, Asian and Indigenous slurs and probably some I am blanking on
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy