Scan barcode
siria's review
emotional
informative
3.75
Mott Street is the most prominent street in New York City's Chinatown, and it's where many of author Ava Chin's ancestors settled on their arrival in the United States in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. It's also the fulcrum around which this book is organised, as Chin delves into both four generations of her own family's history and the history of Chinese migration to the U.S. There are many vibrant figures on Chin's family tree, whether related to her by birth or by marriage—one grandfather ran the first coffee shop in Chinatown; one great-great-uncle found an enduring love match with a Swedish-American intersex woman—who lived through many momentous events in modern history.
This is a wide-ranging book on a topic that Chin is clearly passionate about, and it's well worth the read if you have a curiosity about this time and place. However, I thought that Mott Street wasn't structured in the most effective manner, and the imagined dialogue that Chin sometimes places in her ancestors' mouths (although thankfully set off in italics from the rest of the text) often displayed some of the worst tendencies of historical fiction.
This is a wide-ranging book on a topic that Chin is clearly passionate about, and it's well worth the read if you have a curiosity about this time and place. However, I thought that Mott Street wasn't structured in the most effective manner, and the imagined dialogue that Chin sometimes places in her ancestors' mouths (although thankfully set off in italics from the rest of the text) often displayed some of the worst tendencies of historical fiction.
lottie1803's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Hate crime, Confinement, Death, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Death of parent, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Violence, Deportation, War, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs
bourquesbookshelf's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
obsessivelybookishjojo's review
5.0
Mott Street, a namesake of the famous street in New York’s Chinatown, is a gorgeous and extensively researched memoir of Ava Chin’s family. Seeking to understand her family’s history, she discovered the weighty impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that was in effect for six decades on the lives of her family members.
I love how the nation’s history is intertwined with her family history in this book, because I’m one who believes that they are the same. We can learn much about our country’s history by learning about our family history, because the subject of history–policies, wars, and laws–are lived out in the flesh and bodies of people–people who become our grandmothers and grandfathers. I also love the coverage of Asian American history here that is very rarely part of contemporary conversations. I would have never known about the Chinese Exclusion Act if not for books like these!
I love how the nation’s history is intertwined with her family history in this book, because I’m one who believes that they are the same. We can learn much about our country’s history by learning about our family history, because the subject of history–policies, wars, and laws–are lived out in the flesh and bodies of people–people who become our grandmothers and grandfathers. I also love the coverage of Asian American history here that is very rarely part of contemporary conversations. I would have never known about the Chinese Exclusion Act if not for books like these!