A review by serendipitysbooks
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

River East River West opens with 14 year old Alva attending the wedding of her mother Sloane to their landlord, wealthy businessman Lu Fang. To say she’s not happy is an understatement. The story then unfolds in two timelines. We continue to follow Alva in Shanghai in 2007 and also follow Lu Fang’s backstory beginning in 1985 in Qingdao. Through their perspective we also learn a lot about Sloane. This book explores issues like identity, belonging, migration, class, coming-of-age and mother-daughter relationships, all things I enjoy. What makes this book stand out from the pack is that it does things that I have read less often, if at all. Top of the list is that it’s not the story of Asian migration to America and characters dealing with these issues there, but rather the reverse. For Sloane moved to China from the US, and Alva, who has an unknown Chinese father, has been raised there and never so much as visited the United States. This is a source of tension between the two with Alva wanting to at least visit America, or failing that to attend an international school, both things Sloan adamantly opposed. Alva eventually gets her way on the latter, which allows the author to shine a light on ex-pat communities in China. Suffice to say it’s not a pretty picture with rich people behaving badly; the condescending attitude shown to local Chinese being the least of the problems. The conspicuous consumerism was jaw dropping, as was the way teens were left to their own devices, and the casual racism and inherent belief in their superiority which seemed rife in the expat community, a community that lived very much in its own bubble and had limited contact with any Chinese beyond those they employed. This book offered me a fresh perspective on China in that it was set more recently- the 2007 storyline especially - and primarily in a large urban centre. It seems much of my reading on China has been focused on rural areas and on the period up to and including the Cultural Revolution. This book is one of the first I’ve read that explores Chinese rising economic fortunes, the reopening of the country to the west, and a more contemporary urban childhood. The characters are irritating at best, unlikeable at their worst but the payoff is getting to read less common perspectives, to see traditional tropes upended.

Content Warnings