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A review by brogan7
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This is a book that I wanted to start again as soon as I finished it.
Ok, but also when I got to the end, I realized it's classified as fiction and I thought it was straight up memoir.
The thing that bugs me about that is the grandma who taught herself to read. It's very hard to learn to read Chinese, because there are so many characters and a word is expressed in characters attached to meaning, not sound...so it's practically impossible for her to have taught herself to read. Why would you do that? Why does it matter to have an uneducated grandmother who soared above her age peers in ways that are actually impossible to accomplish? Why couldn't she just be awesome and illiterate?
I liked the flow of the book, the way memories arose and were spoken of and sometimes revised; the low-key tone, very conversational and accessible; the negotiation of different identities.
I liked it. And I'm mad it's fiction because I wanted to see her art piece from the exhibit. It sounded so accomplished and amazing.
Ok, but also when I got to the end, I realized it's classified as fiction and I thought it was straight up memoir.
The thing that bugs me about that is the grandma who taught herself to read. It's very hard to learn to read Chinese, because there are so many characters and a word is expressed in characters attached to meaning, not sound...so it's practically impossible for her to have taught herself to read. Why would you do that? Why does it matter to have an uneducated grandmother who soared above her age peers in ways that are actually impossible to accomplish? Why couldn't she just be awesome and illiterate?
I liked the flow of the book, the way memories arose and were spoken of and sometimes revised; the low-key tone, very conversational and accessible; the negotiation of different identities.
I liked it. And I'm mad it's fiction because I wanted to see her art piece from the exhibit. It sounded so accomplished and amazing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Medical content