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redhickory 's review for:
Unpolished Gem
by Alice Pung
I was hooked by the time I had read the prologue.
I loved the way this explored what it means to be an immigrant in Australia and the way offspring of immigrants have to try to exist in the cultural realities of where they live and where they come from.
Although this occasionally read as a not quite truthful account of past events, it also had a real honesty and poignancy, as the emotion attached to the events and memories always felt genuine.
There was a lot of humour in the book, I laughed a lot and then stopped to examine what had actually just been said, to discover that it was really quite sad; I found this to be very effective – it made the material accessible instead of confronting, which I like as it enables me to ponder as much or as little as I like.
It was a testament to how much I was involved in Alice’s life and her story-telling, that when the book was finished I wondered if there were more – I would definitely have picked up a sequel if there had been one available.
I loved the way this explored what it means to be an immigrant in Australia and the way offspring of immigrants have to try to exist in the cultural realities of where they live and where they come from.
Although this occasionally read as a not quite truthful account of past events, it also had a real honesty and poignancy, as the emotion attached to the events and memories always felt genuine.
There was a lot of humour in the book, I laughed a lot and then stopped to examine what had actually just been said, to discover that it was really quite sad; I found this to be very effective – it made the material accessible instead of confronting, which I like as it enables me to ponder as much or as little as I like.
It was a testament to how much I was involved in Alice’s life and her story-telling, that when the book was finished I wondered if there were more – I would definitely have picked up a sequel if there had been one available.