A review by daiinty
Tomb Sweeping by Alexandra Chang

funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“Lying there in her cramped room, in her small bed, Fufu, now eighteen, feels as though her world is the least significant seed in a pomegranate. She yearns for the whole fruit.” — Alexandra Chang

another book club book! this was quite different because we haven’t done a collection of short stories before which is not something i usually grab. as always i was excited for the change of pace in my reading. i’ve more recently been reading more realistic contemporary fiction, but nothing that primarily surround chinese culture like this. overall, i would say about half of the stories did really resonate with me. one’s that particular stood out were “li fan”, “to get rich is glorious”, “a visit”, and “tomb sweeping”. li fan nearly made me sob on an airplane. how it works backwards to tell this story of a promising young woman fallen into homelessness, emphasizing how destitution can happen to anyone and you don’t need to necessarily “screw up” for it to happen. i feel like chang’s biggest strength is her ability to capture a very subtle writing style in each story that captures the character it is focusing on to develop the voice. chang deftly captures many different family dynamics and how culture and circumstances effect them.

other stories, however, just didn’t really hit the mark for me. i told my book club that all of these stories probably have the potential to have something grand pulled out of them, particularly if this were taught in some literature of ethnic america course, but i am not a college professor, so i’m working with what i got out of it. for instance, the ending of “unknown by unknown” fell really flat for me, making me skeptical about the rest of the collection. then there were one’s like “cat personalities” that just seemed to be there more for comedic effect than anything else. 

i feel like i would still recommend this to someone looking to get into short stories and is interested in reading more about chinese culture as a whole. the stories that did hit are still very much worth reading.