A review by jcstokes95
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

 This essay collection is remarkable. I honestly did not feel a single piece missed the mark; each one was thoughtful and a gorgeous mix of personal and informative. Cathy Hong Park really plumbs the depths here, of her communities’ tragedies and its shortcomings. She takes the time to tease out all the complications; she looks at the model minority myth in a way that makes the harm of it all so clear. She delves into racial self-hatred with depth rarely given to it. In retrospect, I wish I’d purchased a physical copy so I could mark this book up to hell. There are so many arresting lines. 

Park writes about how white, American culture has imprinted on Asian-Americans brought here specifically because their jobs made them “worthy” or the right to immigrate to a country with historically closed borders. This pressure to maintain status and perfection has kept the model minority stereotype alive. Park rejects the American ideology that immigrants should be “grateful” or “compliant” to a nation that has refused to allow them to come into their own identity separate from a relation to whiteness.  

I also loved the section on stand up as abrasive, storytelling that forces the audience into being viewed from the performer’s eyes. I like the idea that audience in this case can be the target and allow a comedian from an underrepresented/oppressed background to put the audience at risk of being on display. 

Like many essay collections, there are points where it temporarily loses its thread. It could stand to be pulled tighter here by an editor, but it is a testament to the strength of Park’s writing style that this remains powerful and compelling despite these blips. 

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