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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
As a medical student, a lot of the discussion about medicine as a career felt painfully familiar (although I am not an intensive care person for the same reasons that Joan is). I feel like the book didn't quite make a solid conclusion, but loved the discussion around family and identity.
reflective
sad
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:
No
Wang is my kind of writer. She’s all voice and tone and plays it so deadpan it sparkles. I’m in awe of her ability to balance pathos, dark wry wit, humour and heartache. She did it in Chemistry and she’s nailed it again – and bless her for doing it bang on 200 pages. I love Joan very, very much and I’m going to be recommending this one pretty hard.
“Was it harder to be a woman? Or an immigrant? Or a Chinese person outside of China? And why did being a good any of the above require you to edit yourself down so you could become someone else?”
Joan is most definitely okay. There were some laugh out loud moments and then the middle got a little boring if I’m being honest. However, Wang touched upon the cultural and societal pressures that are thrown upon Asian American women. Throughout the whole book Joan is delivering quietly powerful messages that she is okay through a plethora of indirect ques, statements, & conversations. She has found a sense of belonging and a place to call home within her career and to most (
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Joan is Okay paints the portrait of Joan, a Chinese-American doctor who just lost her father. Joan lives alone in a small, mostly unfurnished apartment, and spends all her time at work. She relates most to the machines in the hospital that keep people alive. What she doesn’t relate to are other people, whether it is her own family, her coworkers, or her patients.
If you want a character study with very little plot, this is probably a good choice for you. The language was very crisp and concise, and I loved how every word had its place. We watch Joan interact with her brother, who wants her to get a better job and start a family; her mother, who has just traveled from China to America to visit; her neighbor, who thinks Joan would be happier if she read more books, watched more TV, and met more neighbors; and her coworkers, who don’t share Joan’s same passion and work ethic.
While I loved the character study and how they all interacted with each other, I was really frustrated with the setting. This book takes place immediately before the COVID pandemic and during the first month or so of the virus coming to the United States. I have no problem with books set during the pandemic, but considering this book was about a Chinese-American doctor, I feel like we were set up for more of that setting to be explored. I think if the issues of the pandemic are not going to be explored, then this could have been set in 2019 or any year before and have come across the same. The only change the pandemic made on her life was that her mother couldn’t go back home to China immediately, and this didn’t seem to impact any other part of the book.
I like how Joan learns to set boundaries in this book and also get closer to her family. If you just want to watch a character interact with her environment and blossom just the smallest amount, this might be the right book for you.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Jiù (就), fourth tone, twelve strokes, means “at once” or “right away” or “moving toward.” Ān (安), first tone, six strokes, is “peace,” or, taken apart, it’s a roof (宀) under which there is a woman (女). What this woman does, no one really knows. She might be happy or sad. She might be hardworking or indolent, but put this woman in a house and you will have serenity and ease. Jiu-an (就安), or just peace or simply a woman in a house.
......
That should she manage to leave now, we might not be able to see her for several years, with more travel restrictions being put into place. There was a long pause and I thought I’d lost her. Mom? Mom? I said and she tsked and told me to calm down. Come up and see me before October then, she said. But not every weekend, please. We’ve already spent a good amount of time together, so we also don’t want to overdo.
......
That should she manage to leave now, we might not be able to see her for several years, with more travel restrictions being put into place. There was a long pause and I thought I’d lost her. Mom? Mom? I said and she tsked and told me to calm down. Come up and see me before October then, she said. But not every weekend, please. We’ve already spent a good amount of time together, so we also don’t want to overdo.
How'd they write a book about covid so fast? You try to push down any differences associated with being Asian American but are confronted with them all the same. I think it's a practical look at how people come to view the struggles of their lives and make peace in different ways. No prose here this bad boy is highly digestible. I relate to every rambling thought in here.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked this...okay. All I knew going in was what Annie B Jones said on her podcast--an NYC ICU doctor who is an American of Chinese descent, spanning late 2019 into 2020. In my mind I imagined it to have a similar feel to The Morning Show, but it was not that. This is more of a reflection on home, roots, family, a person's place in the world, and confronting expectations from others versus forging one's own path.