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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
Such a beautifully written memoir… I was wrapt in Julie’s story identifying closely to her stories growing up as a kid in the 90s while also empathizing with the striking differences of her life experience as an undocumented immigrant. Laughed and cried the way you should with a good book.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Through such stories we realize again and again what unique battles we fight in this life. Some wars we win and some we don't. Qian Julie Wang opens up the traumas and struggles of her childhood with brutal honesty and in doing so, she tells stories of so many immigrant children who are fighting their own battles, living in the shadows - battles that they did not choose, but were chosen for them by their parents for various reasons.
This book was amazing. It’s a slow read but that is part of what makes it special. I love that the story is told through the voice of the author’s childhood self, which requires slowing down to the pace of an elementary school child experiencing the confusion and trauma of being extremely poor in a new country and learning a new language.
I immediately fell in love with the author. This little girl, Qian, is brave and smart but has to face so much hardship. Loss, hunger, fear, xenophobia, and cruelty, even from her own parents. Her childhood in New York's Chinatown as the child of undocumented immigrants is devastating. Her parents move from job to hob in order to make a living, even though they were both professors back in China. Her mother is particularly works in sweatshops and frigid sushi processing plants. Qian Julie Wang provides a very detailed yet truly dark portray of what it mean to arrive in America in order to find refuge and dignity but find nothing of that. In this book America is not a “beautiful country.”
There are a few moment of joy, such as six coveted candy-colored Polly Pockets, her graduation dress, or her relationship with a cat name Marilyn (but even that ends badly).
But hope and determination guide Qian throughout the book. She learns English fast and falls in love with reading. You know she is going to go far, despite all the hardships.
This book is a must-read: it's a child's vision of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant who has to live in the dark, never feels safe and can never truly feel at home until someone or another country welcomes you.
There are a few moment of joy, such as six coveted candy-colored Polly Pockets, her graduation dress, or her relationship with a cat name Marilyn (but even that ends badly).
But hope and determination guide Qian throughout the book. She learns English fast and falls in love with reading. You know she is going to go far, despite all the hardships.
This book is a must-read: it's a child's vision of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant who has to live in the dark, never feels safe and can never truly feel at home until someone or another country welcomes you.
Made me sob like a baby. Beautiful, moving writing
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced