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laajones94 's review for:
Shanghailanders
by Juli Min
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this eARC.
3.5 stars!
A sparkling debut which shows ample potential from Min to create vivid characters with rich internal and external narratives. This novel possesses a unique plot structure as it follows a family of three daughters from 2040 back to 2018, starting at the advent of their adulthood and ending at the wedding of their parents. By tracking back, the reader is effectively filling in the gaps as to what characters are referencing and why their behaviours, opinions and beliefs led to the first chapters iterations of them. Set against the backdrop of the increasing threat of climate change, and yet simultaneously the boom of technology and property in Shanghai, it casts an intriguing forecast for how our behaviours will alter and yet, perhaps most striking, is how slow the threat encroaches and how naturally the characters seem to adapt to its threats.
Ambitious in construction, at times, the novel almost reads best as a collection of short stories built around the same characters as, in moving back, one never finds out what happened next. Indeed, the entire book is preoccupied with discovering how the past informs the present and the future rather than providing clarity or resolution to the opening chapters. You see the foundations of the issues raised in 2040, you grow to empathise more with the behaviours shown, and yet the conclusion is never reached because we only move backwards.
While there are fun threads to pull on, for example why the youngest daughter resents the middle sister for 'Lucy', there are some narratives which feel unnecessary to the family's arc. Indeed, I thoroughly enjoyed the examination of the lives of the family's live-in nanny, and a train worker who was once married to Leo, the patriarch's less successful friend and colleague, and they were a powerful mediation on the class and financial structures in Shanghai, however, they did not feel fully necessary to the overarching narrative of the book.
The most intriguing part of this novel was that of the family dynamics and the individual personalities. The repeated hints at marital discord that spiral out and out as you travel further back in time, and the complex sisterly relationships, were fascinating, however, as you are travelling back in time, while you do get to see some of their formation, many questions are left unanswered or only vaguely hinted at. With that said, this book is incredibly ambitious, both far reaching in its scope and yet incredibly intimate in its exploration of a specific family, and, while I think sometimes it lacks in pay-off, the rich depictions of this family, and the engaging exploration of class, family, and how our pasts inform our present are well worth a read.
3.5 stars!
A sparkling debut which shows ample potential from Min to create vivid characters with rich internal and external narratives. This novel possesses a unique plot structure as it follows a family of three daughters from 2040 back to 2018, starting at the advent of their adulthood and ending at the wedding of their parents. By tracking back, the reader is effectively filling in the gaps as to what characters are referencing and why their behaviours, opinions and beliefs led to the first chapters iterations of them. Set against the backdrop of the increasing threat of climate change, and yet simultaneously the boom of technology and property in Shanghai, it casts an intriguing forecast for how our behaviours will alter and yet, perhaps most striking, is how slow the threat encroaches and how naturally the characters seem to adapt to its threats.
Ambitious in construction, at times, the novel almost reads best as a collection of short stories built around the same characters as, in moving back, one never finds out what happened next. Indeed, the entire book is preoccupied with discovering how the past informs the present and the future rather than providing clarity or resolution to the opening chapters. You see the foundations of the issues raised in 2040, you grow to empathise more with the behaviours shown, and yet the conclusion is never reached because we only move backwards.
While there are fun threads to pull on, for example why the youngest daughter resents the middle sister for 'Lucy', there are some narratives which feel unnecessary to the family's arc. Indeed, I thoroughly enjoyed the examination of the lives of the family's live-in nanny, and a train worker who was once married to Leo, the patriarch's less successful friend and colleague, and they were a powerful mediation on the class and financial structures in Shanghai, however, they did not feel fully necessary to the overarching narrative of the book.
The most intriguing part of this novel was that of the family dynamics and the individual personalities. The repeated hints at marital discord that spiral out and out as you travel further back in time, and the complex sisterly relationships, were fascinating, however, as you are travelling back in time, while you do get to see some of their formation, many questions are left unanswered or only vaguely hinted at. With that said, this book is incredibly ambitious, both far reaching in its scope and yet incredibly intimate in its exploration of a specific family, and, while I think sometimes it lacks in pay-off, the rich depictions of this family, and the engaging exploration of class, family, and how our pasts inform our present are well worth a read.