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maryleong 's review for:
Joan Is Okay
by Weike Wang
This novel is okay. It didn't really say a lot. Kind of like its protagonist, Joan, a doctor in New York who's by most metrics, a success. Joan and her brother, Fang, grew up with immigrant parents who scraped by, unable to find their way in the so-called American Dream. Experiencing poverty in childhood has shaped the siblings and their adult relationship: Fang fervently chases financial wealth and enjoys a materialistic lifestyle; Joan keeps her head down, happy to be a cog in the machine, quietly resisting the pressures from her family, colleagues, and neighbours to fit into their expectations of her. I'm not sure if the author intended to write Joan as neurodivergent, but her interactions seem to imply so. Overall, this novel had a lot of potential to highlight Joan's experience as a doctor in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, to go in-depth into the sibling and parental family dynamics, but ultimately, felt flat and uninspired.
Edit: The reason I can't enjoy this novel more is that Joan is, to me, such a fundamentally frustrating character because of her passivity. Even in rejecting the norms that are pushed upon her, she never once advocates for herself, just letting herself be berated and belittled, even as she questions the idea of the "model minority".
Edit: The reason I can't enjoy this novel more is that Joan is, to me, such a fundamentally frustrating character because of her passivity. Even in rejecting the norms that are pushed upon her, she never once advocates for herself, just letting herself be berated and belittled, even as she questions the idea of the "model minority".