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lsparrow's review against another edition
2.0
wanted to enjoy this book of family and culture but I could not. I found the style of the writing disjointed and hard to follow and I could not find a flow. I found myself pushing myself to finish this book. I felt that was a lot I could have enjoyed in this book but I just couldn't get past the slog of reading it.
strawbe_rese's review against another edition
3.0
The Modern Family
The Love wife by Gish Jen published by Vintage Contemporaries in 2005
This book tells the story of a nontraditional American family and how they deal with not only the idiosyncrasies found in any family’s make up, but with the specific difficulties faced by an interracial couple made up of Asian American Carnegie and European American Jane, better known as Blondie. Their family is made up of their one biological baby Bailey and two adopted, Asian daughters Wendy and Lizzy, as well as the strong minded mother-in-law. While some of the problems this family is dealing with, such as their eldest daughter’s rebellious nature, are what are to be expected and faced by any family, blended or not, they have the added difficulty of handling cross cultural interactions when a woman from China, Lan, is brought into the family for questionable reasons by the husband’s mother Mama Wong.
One of the most interesting aspects to this story is the insight to the culture clash between Lan and the family. With the introduction of Lan, not only do we see America through her opinions, we are able to see deeper into the characters themselves, such as Blondie’s enthusiasm to take in Lan’s opinions, going so far as to donate three of the family’s possessions everyday after hearing Lan speak of not needing so much stuff.
Jen uses a few offbeat stylistic choices that for some may be off putting, such as, instead of the traditional parentheses to signal dialogue, she uses a dash before each piece of speaking. While not impossible to follow the conversation, I still found myself never quite getting used to this structure and feel it did not really add anything to the story. In fact, I think it slightly took away from my reaction to the story since I always noticed it so it pulled my attention from the story and also the dialogue would have less emphasis and meld in with the rest of the writing because of this.
Another stylistic choice that may either work for a reader or throw them off is the constant shift of narrators. The upside to this style is it really gives an immediate and often fascinating insight to a single event as it takes place and we flick between different characters reactions. The downside with this style is that often I found that while reading longer passages, I would need to backtrack to remember who was speaking.
While the story has its ups and downs with style, I found that there was a truly interesting interaction between the many characters. This is definitely a book for readers fascinated by culture clash in everyday situations such as those experienced between Lan and the family, as well as struggles of life between immigrant parents and their Americanized children and how the effects of that can ripple into the future life of the child.
The Love wife by Gish Jen published by Vintage Contemporaries in 2005
This book tells the story of a nontraditional American family and how they deal with not only the idiosyncrasies found in any family’s make up, but with the specific difficulties faced by an interracial couple made up of Asian American Carnegie and European American Jane, better known as Blondie. Their family is made up of their one biological baby Bailey and two adopted, Asian daughters Wendy and Lizzy, as well as the strong minded mother-in-law. While some of the problems this family is dealing with, such as their eldest daughter’s rebellious nature, are what are to be expected and faced by any family, blended or not, they have the added difficulty of handling cross cultural interactions when a woman from China, Lan, is brought into the family for questionable reasons by the husband’s mother Mama Wong.
One of the most interesting aspects to this story is the insight to the culture clash between Lan and the family. With the introduction of Lan, not only do we see America through her opinions, we are able to see deeper into the characters themselves, such as Blondie’s enthusiasm to take in Lan’s opinions, going so far as to donate three of the family’s possessions everyday after hearing Lan speak of not needing so much stuff.
Jen uses a few offbeat stylistic choices that for some may be off putting, such as, instead of the traditional parentheses to signal dialogue, she uses a dash before each piece of speaking. While not impossible to follow the conversation, I still found myself never quite getting used to this structure and feel it did not really add anything to the story. In fact, I think it slightly took away from my reaction to the story since I always noticed it so it pulled my attention from the story and also the dialogue would have less emphasis and meld in with the rest of the writing because of this.
Another stylistic choice that may either work for a reader or throw them off is the constant shift of narrators. The upside to this style is it really gives an immediate and often fascinating insight to a single event as it takes place and we flick between different characters reactions. The downside with this style is that often I found that while reading longer passages, I would need to backtrack to remember who was speaking.
While the story has its ups and downs with style, I found that there was a truly interesting interaction between the many characters. This is definitely a book for readers fascinated by culture clash in everyday situations such as those experienced between Lan and the family, as well as struggles of life between immigrant parents and their Americanized children and how the effects of that can ripple into the future life of the child.
karisommers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sophiahelix's review against another edition
4.0
Really a 3.5 star rating, but I'll give it the extra star for ambition and scope. I didn't find the multiple narrators confusing, except for how it undermined my natural desire to "side" with one character or another in the complicated mess Jen creates for them -- every time you feel one person is being treated unfairly, you switch to another POV and understand why. I loved the frank exploration of identity and adoption and interracial families, even when it made the book a little hard to read, emotionally speaking (one character's outspokenness is especially painful). The pacing of the book is off (75% of it is at slow speed, until the last quarter of the book races onwards, only to crash into a major climax in the last five pages), which is something I've noticed in many modern American novels, but I enjoyed it all the same.
rlbasley's review against another edition
4.0
I'm still on the fence wether I liked this book or not. I am a fan of this author because she write about real world topics with a hint of a twist and once again I never saw it coming in this book which was the positive.
The part that ha me pondering is the ending. Thankfully it wasn't something written out if a Disney screenplay which turns me off of any book. I felt it needed a more ending end but thinking on real life it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes people come together for an event only to separate to corners afterwards...maybe I liked this book more than I think I do.
The part that ha me pondering is the ending. Thankfully it wasn't something written out if a Disney screenplay which turns me off of any book. I felt it needed a more ending end but thinking on real life it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes people come together for an event only to separate to corners afterwards...maybe I liked this book more than I think I do.
meli65's review against another edition
2.0
The further I got into it, the less appealing all the characters became.
sophiahelix's review against another edition
4.0
Really a 3.5 star rating, but I'll give it the extra star for ambition and scope. I didn't find the multiple narrators confusing, except for how it undermined my natural desire to "side" with one character or another in the complicated mess Jen creates for them -- every time you feel one person is being treated unfairly, you switch to another POV and understand why. I loved the frank exploration of identity and adoption and interracial families, even when it made the book a little hard to read, emotionally speaking (one character's outspokenness is especially painful). The pacing of the book is off (75% of it is at slow speed, until the last quarter of the book races onwards, only to crash into a major climax in the last five pages), which is something I've noticed in many modern American novels, but I enjoyed it all the same.
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