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A review by carriebee
But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu
5.0
But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu opens with its main character Girl traveling from Australia to Scotland for an artist residency. In the backdrop is the recent disappearance of MAS370. People assume Girl knows about it because of her Malaysian parents. She plans to work on her Sylvia Plath dissertation and write a postcolonial novel, which is more challenging than it seems. Out in the world and away from her close-knit family for the first time, Girl explores questions of her identity and all of its complex facets: Australian/Malaysian, daughter, woman, friend, academic, creator. Girl negotiates a world where the complexities of her identity can’t be shed and begins to own all the pieces that make her who she is.
The writing alone made this an instant favorite. I marked what feels like a million passages; I love so many of the sentences and the way Yu frames the things she is writing about. While there is dialogue and interactions with others, we spend a lot of time in Girl’s head and her observations are so astute and at times there is dry, witty, laugh-out-loud humor.
There is so much here I want to write about and also feel I can’t adequately address. I want to mention Plath but also point out this is only one part of the many things that make this novel great. I love how Yu used Plath in a way that enhances explorations of race, how it plays out in academia and in how we read and interpret literature. The way Girl sees herself in Plath’s work and recognizes and discusses how someone that looks like her is represented is brilliant. Girl appreciates how Plath puts often hidden things out in the open. The novel definitely offers a different lens for Plath and the challenges modern readers have with oppressive aspects of backlist work. I was consistently in awe of the way Yu’s writing offered perspectives I hadn’t had before. There is a brutal and refreshing honesty in this book’s pages we don’t often see and I absolutely love.
One of my favorite books of the year so far. Highly recommended.
Thank you @unnamedpress for the #gifted ARC
The writing alone made this an instant favorite. I marked what feels like a million passages; I love so many of the sentences and the way Yu frames the things she is writing about. While there is dialogue and interactions with others, we spend a lot of time in Girl’s head and her observations are so astute and at times there is dry, witty, laugh-out-loud humor.
There is so much here I want to write about and also feel I can’t adequately address. I want to mention Plath but also point out this is only one part of the many things that make this novel great. I love how Yu used Plath in a way that enhances explorations of race, how it plays out in academia and in how we read and interpret literature. The way Girl sees herself in Plath’s work and recognizes and discusses how someone that looks like her is represented is brilliant. Girl appreciates how Plath puts often hidden things out in the open. The novel definitely offers a different lens for Plath and the challenges modern readers have with oppressive aspects of backlist work. I was consistently in awe of the way Yu’s writing offered perspectives I hadn’t had before. There is a brutal and refreshing honesty in this book’s pages we don’t often see and I absolutely love.
One of my favorite books of the year so far. Highly recommended.
Thank you @unnamedpress for the #gifted ARC