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taylorfield's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
2.5
April 2024 Book Club read
Long Story Short: At 5-years-old, Qian Julie Wang and her mother left China for the “Beautiful Country” to reunite with her father, who’d been in the US for two years already. This memoir follows the strife, sacrifice, and resilience of the next five years through the lens of a child’s eyes.
<blockquote>“There was a Chinese idiom I came to know later because Ma Ma and Ba Ba would repeat it to me in those moments: “Purple comes from blue but is superior to blue.” It was inevitable, they seemed to believe, that I would one day outshine them in the best and worst ways.”</blockquote>
I greatly admire Qian Julie Wang’s bravery to share her childhood trauma and the imperfections of her family, and as a random reader I’m not owed any further acknowledgement or explanations of her life’s story and experience in America. At the same time, because so many explanations were left out, I found myself having to guess about catalysts, intentions, and reasonings. <i>Beautiful Country</i> reads more like a child’s diary, which is fine, but not what I expected based on the blurb and “How It Began” sections. So many things were glossed over despite them feeling really important.
Enjoyment: 2/5
Craft: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5
Long Story Short: At 5-years-old, Qian Julie Wang and her mother left China for the “Beautiful Country” to reunite with her father, who’d been in the US for two years already. This memoir follows the strife, sacrifice, and resilience of the next five years through the lens of a child’s eyes.
<blockquote>“There was a Chinese idiom I came to know later because Ma Ma and Ba Ba would repeat it to me in those moments: “Purple comes from blue but is superior to blue.” It was inevitable, they seemed to believe, that I would one day outshine them in the best and worst ways.”</blockquote>
I greatly admire Qian Julie Wang’s bravery to share her childhood trauma and the imperfections of her family, and as a random reader I’m not owed any further acknowledgement or explanations of her life’s story and experience in America. At the same time, because so many explanations were left out, I found myself having to guess about catalysts, intentions, and reasonings. <i>Beautiful Country</i> reads more like a child’s diary, which is fine, but not what I expected based on the blurb and “How It Began” sections. So many things were glossed over despite them feeling really important.
Enjoyment: 2/5
Craft: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Domestic abuse
Poverty, hunger, child labordominicangirl's review against another edition
sad
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Domestic abuse
shortstackz's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
3.5
This is a tough read for anyone who has experienced childhood food insecurity. Qian has a very lyrical writing style, leaving the reader to infer a lot about the inner lives of her parents throughout the story. It centers around the years where they were undocumented in the US, and I wish she delved more into the aftermath and unpacking of it. The lart chapter is a sprint through her adulthood, I would have liked to see how her life in Canada further contrasted against her Chinese and American lives. Particularly as she focused on her mother's journey throughout the memoir. It's easy to forget the political context of their move, especially when you see the glaring mysogyny of the father. A tough family dynamic between all involved, and a family struggling to find safe haven.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Medical content
danahuff's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I reviewed this book on my blog.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Excrement, Body shaming, and Domestic abuse
xeniba's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
I felt this was beautifully written, though difficult to read at times because of the trauma the author experienced. I’m grateful to the author for being so transparent and sharing her story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical trauma, Child abuse, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
bookish_garden's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Pedophilia
Minor: Abortion and Domestic abuse
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
it always feels so odd to me, in some way, to talk about and rate memoirs because its somebodys life that youre, in essence, putting a number value on, so rather than try and do that ill just say that i loved the way Qian spoke about her life in the most intimate way that somebody can do; giving us the bad times, the good times, the scary times, and the times that maybe didnt paint her in the best light.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Deportation, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Violence, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Racism, Sexism, Chronic illness, Grief, Hate crime, Pedophilia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Excrement
awebofstories's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4.0
Grade: A
In discussing another memoir, I used a metaphor to describe how I think the genre should work. When you read a memoir, you are standing next to the author and looking out at the world through the same window. What matters is the size of the window. Some memoirists look through a small, clouded window. Qian Julie Wang is looking out of tall, clear windows with an expansive view.
This is not an easy story. If I could distill the feeling of this book down to one word it would be Dickensian. Julie (the name she adopts in her adolescence) and her family experience poverty that Americans don't want to admit exists in our nation. They also live under immense stress as they try to survive with the fear of being discovered and deported.
What I love the most about this book is how honest it is. Julie is not an angel, and she doesn't try to be. At the same time, we understand her. We understand that she has a burden no child should bear. She doesn't back away from showing the catastrophic effects of stress on her parents' marriage and she is able to convey her relationships with her parents with an amazing knack for illustrating with adult words what a child is experiencing. There were a few times were I was momentarily flummoxed at how she could be angry or terrified of her father and, a few pages later, loving him with her whole heart. This is not something an adult would do--but it is completely reasonable that a young child would.
I have only one complaint with this book, and I hesitate to even call it a complaint. There is a natural "chapter-ending" to her life, which is where the narrative essentially ends. She concludes with an additional chapter that quickly skims what happened in her life from that point until the present--but I wanted to know more! That last chapter made me feel a little robbed--not only because it felt rushed, but also because it alludes to so much change in her life. However, I will completely forgive this shortcoming if Wang comes out with another memoir covering this period in her life.
While this isn't a book to pick up when you want something comforting, it is one that I would urge you to read at some point in your life. And I wait with bated breath for more from Qian Julie Wang.
In discussing another memoir, I used a metaphor to describe how I think the genre should work. When you read a memoir, you are standing next to the author and looking out at the world through the same window. What matters is the size of the window. Some memoirists look through a small, clouded window. Qian Julie Wang is looking out of tall, clear windows with an expansive view.
This is not an easy story. If I could distill the feeling of this book down to one word it would be Dickensian. Julie (the name she adopts in her adolescence) and her family experience poverty that Americans don't want to admit exists in our nation. They also live under immense stress as they try to survive with the fear of being discovered and deported.
What I love the most about this book is how honest it is. Julie is not an angel, and she doesn't try to be. At the same time, we understand her. We understand that she has a burden no child should bear. She doesn't back away from showing the catastrophic effects of stress on her parents' marriage and she is able to convey her relationships with her parents with an amazing knack for illustrating with adult words what a child is experiencing. There were a few times were I was momentarily flummoxed at how she could be angry or terrified of her father and, a few pages later, loving him with her whole heart. This is not something an adult would do--but it is completely reasonable that a young child would.
I have only one complaint with this book, and I hesitate to even call it a complaint. There is a natural "chapter-ending" to her life, which is where the narrative essentially ends. She concludes with an additional chapter that quickly skims what happened in her life from that point until the present--but I wanted to know more! That last chapter made me feel a little robbed--not only because it felt rushed, but also because it alludes to so much change in her life. However, I will completely forgive this shortcoming if Wang comes out with another memoir covering this period in her life.
While this isn't a book to pick up when you want something comforting, it is one that I would urge you to read at some point in your life. And I wait with bated breath for more from Qian Julie Wang.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty
carlys_currently_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, and Vomit
revolution666's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Medical trauma, Medical content, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Cursing and Domestic abuse