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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
The prose were beautifully done but it didn’t connect for me.
We live forward. We know what has been and how we got to today, the disappointments, the dreams deferred, the trauma. Juli Min dares to reverse the experience in Shanghailanders, taking readers through the lives of a family from the present backwards through time.
She begins with a family at the airport, going their separate ways. The daughters Yumi and Yoko, returning to boarding school and college, are accompanied by their mother, Eko. The father Leo returns home on the train to be with their youngest daughter Kiki. Leo wonders if Eko was more motivated to get away from him than by maternal protection of their grown daughters.
Meanwhile, Eko and the girls are shopping at the duty free store. The sisters have a contentious, fragile relationship. Eko knows they don’t need her. She thinks about leaving Leo, and who she was when they met, and the future she hops her daughters would have. First, Eko will take Yoko to France where she could safely and quickly solve a problem.
The year is 2040. Leo is Chinese and Eko is Japanese but was raised in France. They live in Shanghi. Leo also has a farm in Vancouver, and a village house fitted with survival supplies, and a boat at the ready for when the fragile structure of civilization collapses.
Each chapter takes us back through the years, to 2014, the story told from the viewpoints of each character, revealing their lives and how they became fractured.
When I got to the end, the wedding of Leo and Eko, it was heartbreaking. The hope that is marriage, trusting the future will be everything that Eko wants for her daughters: to find someone who will love and cherish their “essential shapes.” Every marriage begins this way. Too often, the reality of imperfect people shatter the ideal.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through LibraryThing Early Readers program.
She begins with a family at the airport, going their separate ways. The daughters Yumi and Yoko, returning to boarding school and college, are accompanied by their mother, Eko. The father Leo returns home on the train to be with their youngest daughter Kiki. Leo wonders if Eko was more motivated to get away from him than by maternal protection of their grown daughters.
Meanwhile, Eko and the girls are shopping at the duty free store. The sisters have a contentious, fragile relationship. Eko knows they don’t need her. She thinks about leaving Leo, and who she was when they met, and the future she hops her daughters would have. First, Eko will take Yoko to France where she could safely and quickly solve a problem.
The year is 2040. Leo is Chinese and Eko is Japanese but was raised in France. They live in Shanghi. Leo also has a farm in Vancouver, and a village house fitted with survival supplies, and a boat at the ready for when the fragile structure of civilization collapses.
Each chapter takes us back through the years, to 2014, the story told from the viewpoints of each character, revealing their lives and how they became fractured.
When I got to the end, the wedding of Leo and Eko, it was heartbreaking. The hope that is marriage, trusting the future will be everything that Eko wants for her daughters: to find someone who will love and cherish their “essential shapes.” Every marriage begins this way. Too often, the reality of imperfect people shatter the ideal.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through LibraryThing Early Readers program.
emotional
reflective
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
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one started off strong for me. However, I started to loose interest as it went on. The story is told backwards from 2040 to 2014. I found myself wanting to know what was next for the characters more than I was interested in learning about their past.
“All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️
2025 📖 Read #10/Book #38
“All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️
2025 📖 Read #10/Book #38
emotional
reflective
slow-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