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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoy a western and I loved the idea of writing a western that centres Chinese-Americans and is set during the California gold rush and the building of the US railroads. (Side note: the character of Mr Wu in Deadwood was always a fascinating character for me in TV and I always wanted to hear more stories about characters like him)
It also covers topics that I’m personally interested as a diaspora Hongkonger, like the meaning of home, history, identity, family and so on.
I liked the writing of the book, I was immediately swept up in the magical realism of it all and the slow meditative pacing of it and was invested in all of the characters. I also love how the central family in the book encompasses the different kinds of experiences of being Asian-American or being Asian in America.
I will say that that while I enjoyed the writing, I did feel that the story did at times get weighed down by the floweriness of the language. Sometimes I lost track of what is happening in the book that you do have to sometimes go back a few pages.
Whilst the book is told exclusively from Lucy’s perspective (and at one point the ghost of Ba) I wish we got to hear more from Sam, because while Sam is the counterpoint to Lucy, they’re constantly a mystery throughout the book and I wanted to hear more from them. Incidentally I’d be curious to hear what trans or non-binary readers felt about Sam as a character.
I read afterwards that this was actually written as a short story first, which makes sense as the middle half does feel a bit clunky and the sudden five-year time jump in part four threw me a bit.
I read that one of the criticisms aimed at this book was that the characters at this time would have spoken Cantonese instead of Mandarin, so the pinyin used throughout the book is not technically accurate. I’m willing to forgive that, it didn’t bother me too much, incidentally I’m curious to know how no-Mandarin speakers navigated the pinyin spread throughout the book.
(I’ve been blitzing through Firefly which has random Mandarin thrown around so always curious to know how non-Mandarin speakers navigate un-subtitled Mandarin in art).
This is more of a 3.75, I hesitate to give it a full four, but this is definitely one of the books I’d like to revisit in a few years.
It also covers topics that I’m personally interested as a diaspora Hongkonger, like the meaning of home, history, identity, family and so on.
I liked the writing of the book, I was immediately swept up in the magical realism of it all and the slow meditative pacing of it and was invested in all of the characters. I also love how the central family in the book encompasses the different kinds of experiences of being Asian-American or being Asian in America.
I will say that that while I enjoyed the writing, I did feel that the story did at times get weighed down by the floweriness of the language. Sometimes I lost track of what is happening in the book that you do have to sometimes go back a few pages.
Whilst the book is told exclusively from Lucy’s perspective (and at one point the ghost of Ba) I wish we got to hear more from Sam, because while Sam is the counterpoint to Lucy, they’re constantly a mystery throughout the book and I wanted to hear more from them. Incidentally I’d be curious to hear what trans or non-binary readers felt about Sam as a character.
I read afterwards that this was actually written as a short story first, which makes sense as the middle half does feel a bit clunky and the sudden five-year time jump in part four threw me a bit.
I read that one of the criticisms aimed at this book was that the characters at this time would have spoken Cantonese instead of Mandarin, so the pinyin used throughout the book is not technically accurate. I’m willing to forgive that, it didn’t bother me too much, incidentally I’m curious to know how no-Mandarin speakers navigated the pinyin spread throughout the book.
(I’ve been blitzing through Firefly which has random Mandarin thrown around so always curious to know how non-Mandarin speakers navigate un-subtitled Mandarin in art).
This is more of a 3.75, I hesitate to give it a full four, but this is definitely one of the books I’d like to revisit in a few years.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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:
No
Richtig gute, aber auch sehr bedrückende Lektüre. Ich sehe mich schon die nächsten Tage noch viel über das Ende nachdenken.
Leider wird ausschließlich (und auch oft) das rassistische I-Wort für die indigene Bevölkerung Amerikas genutzt.
Leider wird ausschließlich (und auch oft) das rassistische I-Wort für die indigene Bevölkerung Amerikas genutzt.
adventurous
emotional
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:
No
Really well written, had a dreamy poetic quality to it. I should be reading more historical fiction.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes