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raccoonfoo's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
dude_watchin_with_the_brontes's review
4.0
I loved the stories, and liked the way the different stories intertwined.
I felt like some of the characters were a little too similar - confusing narcissistic women and the men who love them. Maybe that's why I liked "The Lone Night Cantina" so much - told from the point of view of an interesting woman, and possibly the only story that passed the Bechdel Test.
I felt like some of the characters were a little too similar - confusing narcissistic women and the men who love them. Maybe that's why I liked "The Lone Night Cantina" so much - told from the point of view of an interesting woman, and possibly the only story that passed the Bechdel Test.
nathansnook's review
2.0
"๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ป๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ง๐ง, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ, ๐ข ๐ฎ๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ'๐ฅ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐บ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ, ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต, ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐บ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ด๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ค, ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ."
It's amazing to me that the first story was even a Pushcart winner. How Don Lee got to publish a collection of mediocrity astounds me. With stories that are flat and half-fleshed out, they are ultimately drafts that require a lot more work than it took for him to even get to teaching at a grad/undergrad university level.
Take a look at this quote for example, cluttered with so many adjectives: puzzling, mysterious, peevishly, pointed. All of these instances where the adjectives stand could've been expanded, but, unfortunately, create a muddy run-on that lessens the impact of the punch at the end of the sentence. Lee doesn't care for economics, no, with a story that runs for 20 or so pages, with shallow dialogue that gives no flesh nor blood to the characters.
Initially, I picked this up because Elaine Hsieh Chou had mentioned it in an interview about her novel, ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. I think this was a good reference in seeing Asian-on-Asian antagonism and conflict for character-development research, but, it just goes to show that bad writing follows bad writing.
Either there are no editors left in the world. Or writers aren't doing their job.
*DNF
It's amazing to me that the first story was even a Pushcart winner. How Don Lee got to publish a collection of mediocrity astounds me. With stories that are flat and half-fleshed out, they are ultimately drafts that require a lot more work than it took for him to even get to teaching at a grad/undergrad university level.
Take a look at this quote for example, cluttered with so many adjectives: puzzling, mysterious, peevishly, pointed. All of these instances where the adjectives stand could've been expanded, but, unfortunately, create a muddy run-on that lessens the impact of the punch at the end of the sentence. Lee doesn't care for economics, no, with a story that runs for 20 or so pages, with shallow dialogue that gives no flesh nor blood to the characters.
Initially, I picked this up because Elaine Hsieh Chou had mentioned it in an interview about her novel, ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. I think this was a good reference in seeing Asian-on-Asian antagonism and conflict for character-development research, but, it just goes to show that bad writing follows bad writing.
Either there are no editors left in the world. Or writers aren't doing their job.
*DNF
diamondolc's review
3.0
Decently good short story collection that was interesting but not mind-blowing. I found the writing to be lyrical and pleasant, but the characters to be a bit bland/repetitive. I found myself confusing some of them with each other. I also didn't really like the inconsistency in that some of the stories intertwined but others didn't. I think it would have been better if either all of them were connected or none of them were. Also, a lot of the stories would build up to something exciting happening and then skip over it entirely straight to the aftermath, which kinda felt like a cop-out to me. Like, "eh, this scene is gonna be difficult to write, so how about I just skip it?"
I dunno. Worth a read, anyway. I liked it overall.
I dunno. Worth a read, anyway. I liked it overall.
yumikat2006's review
5.0
a good primer into fiction about the lives of East Asian cishet men and women. i actually really liked it.
lan_string's review
3.25
I wanted to like this so much more than I did. I loved the interconnectedness of the stories; I loved the complexity of the town and of the families. I thought the concepts were great; most of the plots were really gripping. It fell flat for me on a few fronts. Firstly, for a collection that is ostensibly about representation and creating narrative space for Asian Americans, I felt like the text was surprisingly pandering to other audiences. This might be the fault of an editor trying to make the collection more palatable, but likeโฆ.. if I need to look up ABC because Iโm not the target audience, then I think weโre all going to live, you donโt have to spell it out for me. The main problem I had though was that often, the stories were just a little shoddily written. Apart from a few really great and thought-provoking one-liners, the entire thing just felt rushed. There was a lot of potential supported by not very much good execution. It felt SO obvious that the rest of the stories were thrown together to support a collection inspired by Yellow. And on that note, wow - making your titular, closing, and by far longest story the absolute best of the bunch?? Total shocker. It was good though. :-) also loved the cowboy story with Annie Yung.