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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
this was hard to follow throughout because the dialogue was not in speech marks and it was not really broken down in chapters - so it honestly felt as if you were either in joan's thoughts/looking at her life through her lens or an outsiders perspective.
some of the topics that this touched on, was really interesting and i enjoyed some of the conversations especially between joan and her sister in law tami. i do wish the characters were more fleshed out but for a book that's less than 220 pages, maybe im asking for too much.
some of the topics that this touched on, was really interesting and i enjoyed some of the conversations especially between joan and her sister in law tami. i do wish the characters were more fleshed out but for a book that's less than 220 pages, maybe im asking for too much.
This was written in a unique format. I’ve never read a book with no traditional dialogue. You really get in Joan’s head. It was really good.
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Fascinating take on being a first generation doctor facing the emotional distances with her parents. One of the only books so far in fiction that addresses COVID in a realistic, anxious way as the pandemic evolved. Weike Wang incorporates Chinese culture in wonderful ways of food and language.
Joan is Okay is a quiet, contemplative book. Joan herself has chosen a quiet, workaholic life. She has little use for material goods, living in a barely furnished apartment in a sketchy part of NYC. A busy attending at a NY hospital, she has no friends other than her colleagues. She is always willing to work someone’s shift and gets reprimanded for working too many shifts. But she finds her work fulfilling and while I wouldn’t describe her as happy, she is satisfied with her life.
When her mother returns from China after the death of her father, she is forced to confront her childhood, the expectations of her brother and even her new, outgoing neighbor who is forcing his way into her life.
While there isn’t a major plot or twist, Joan’s story is one of reflection, affirmation, and growth.
When her mother returns from China after the death of her father, she is forced to confront her childhood, the expectations of her brother and even her new, outgoing neighbor who is forcing his way into her life.
While there isn’t a major plot or twist, Joan’s story is one of reflection, affirmation, and growth.
I didn’t love the writing style of this book and had trouble connecting with the main character. It felt as though the author inserted her own thoughts and observations often; I found some of them to be incongruous with what the main character herself was like. I did find the book very funny, though—lots of actual laughs out loud!
It took me some time to decide what Joan Is Okay is about. At times I thought it about being a woman in a male-dominated profession. At other times, I thought it was about being a Chinese woman in America. Although the book is sometimes described as the story of an ICU doctor in New York as the pandemic hits, we don't even learn what year it is until the book is more than half over and so follow Joan through the first half of the book without knowing what is going to happen.
I think it's the story of a daughter grieving the death of her father in a manner that is not understood by her White American co-workers or the administration of the hospital where she works. But I'm not sure it's understood by her family either. For me, this is a book about death: the death of Joan's father, the death that is ever-present in the ICU, the death caused by the virus in her parents' home country on the other side of the world, and then the death that inevitably arrives in her city and her hospital caused by that same virus. And amidst all this death is Joan being exactly who she truly is despite everyone around her (with the possible exception of the hospital director) pushing her to be different than she is.
Wang's writing feels unlike anything I've read before, from her eschewing quotation marks to the opacity of her first-person narrator.
I am thankful for the free copy of this book that I received from Random House Book Club in exchange for my honest review. My glowing review was honestly earned by Wang and not at all impacted by the fact that I received a free copy of the book from her publisher.
I think it's the story of a daughter grieving the death of her father in a manner that is not understood by her White American co-workers or the administration of the hospital where she works. But I'm not sure it's understood by her family either. For me, this is a book about death: the death of Joan's father, the death that is ever-present in the ICU, the death caused by the virus in her parents' home country on the other side of the world, and then the death that inevitably arrives in her city and her hospital caused by that same virus. And amidst all this death is Joan being exactly who she truly is despite everyone around her (with the possible exception of the hospital director) pushing her to be different than she is.
Wang's writing feels unlike anything I've read before, from her eschewing quotation marks to the opacity of her first-person narrator.
I am thankful for the free copy of this book that I received from Random House Book Club in exchange for my honest review. My glowing review was honestly earned by Wang and not at all impacted by the fact that I received a free copy of the book from her publisher.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes