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A review by purplemuskogee
Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You: A Memoir of Saying the Unsayable with Food by Candice Chung
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I expected a bit more from this memoir, and I was disappointed by how it turned out.
I can see what Candice Chung tried to do here - mixing memories from her parents, stories of food (she is a restaurant reviewer), and reflections on food and identity, a lot of them quotes from books she loves (Deborah Levy, one of my favourite authors, features heavily). She relies on these quotes a lot, and it felt a bit artificial at times - like she was trying to reach a certain word count, or gain a credibility that I would have given her without the literary quotes. Overall I found it pleasant but it didn't quite work for me as a food memoir.
A big part of the book was centred around her new relationship with "the geographer" and reminiscence of her previous relationship with "the psychic reader", and her distant relationship with her parents, but their lovely outings to restaurants she is reviewing.
I felt she had all the right ingredients for a great book but used too much of this and not enough of that. If I was asked, I would say this is a book about new love or new relationships, not particularly a memoir centred around food. Which is fine but not what I wanted to read.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
I can see what Candice Chung tried to do here - mixing memories from her parents, stories of food (she is a restaurant reviewer), and reflections on food and identity, a lot of them quotes from books she loves (Deborah Levy, one of my favourite authors, features heavily). She relies on these quotes a lot, and it felt a bit artificial at times - like she was trying to reach a certain word count, or gain a credibility that I would have given her without the literary quotes. Overall I found it pleasant but it didn't quite work for me as a food memoir.
A big part of the book was centred around her new relationship with "the geographer" and reminiscence of her previous relationship with "the psychic reader", and her distant relationship with her parents, but their lovely outings to restaurants she is reviewing.
I felt she had all the right ingredients for a great book but used too much of this and not enough of that. If I was asked, I would say this is a book about new love or new relationships, not particularly a memoir centred around food. Which is fine but not what I wanted to read.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.