Reviews - The Paper Menagerie

323 reviews for:

Reading this, I felt an almost physical pain about what I've given up for my kids, and I don't even have kids! Ken Liu is so talented. Making me feel so devastated for the narrator's poor mom within so few pages really is an art form. She must have been so lonely and heartbroken all these years while her son wanted nothing to do with his own Chinese heritage. What a beautiful story.

level7susceptible's review against another edition

4.0

You can really feel the Jack's desperation at trying to make us understand that what he feels is regret about how he treated his mother throughout her life. It was really emotional and really sad, but I also felt as though he was being a bit too hard on himself. The pressure he felt about being mixed-race in a very unforgiving California environment was very clear and it made me understand him more. It's hard being a teenager. I can't imagine being him when he was a teenager. It's unfortunate that he only learned to respect and cherish the magic his mother gave him until she was gone, but I think it's also a good cautionary tale. I think it's more than that, though, as well. It's a beautiful story about the complexities of having a mother you can't quite connect with- through your own choices, but also through the environment you've grown up in.