A review by bookaquarius
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“My mother called me selfish and so selfish I became.” I finished Land of Milk and Honey during a long-ish drive yesterday. It’s a weird, curious, kinda gross, and infused with social commentary on several things including consumerism, greed, rejection, the environment, selfishness, the arrogance of humans, and of course, pleasure. It’s always a bit creepy to read about a near-future dystopian world that feels just a liiiiitle too close to what we already survive through today. We’ve all seen the hubris of the disgustingly rich play out in real time in increasingly awful ways (i.e. the submarine that couldn’t). Among other things, Land of Milk and Honey uses food and the life of a young chef to explore what it means to truly have and enjoy something in life. Readers also get to see how creativity and resilience plays out in disturbing and inspiring ways among the haves and the have-nots, respectively. 

Here are my thoughts! 1) I liked the themes Zhang explored and I think this novel does offer a fresh perspective, though it does use familiar characters and concepts that readers of The Great Gatsby will definitely notice. Some characters feel like they were plucked out of that story and then built upon for this more modern novel. 2) If I was reading this with a book club I might pose a question about why our protagonist believes having a better mother-daughter relationship would have changed what a total creep Aida was. 3) Overall the writing was excellent, but I didn’t love it all the way through. There were points when I felt the vagueness of the writing seemed like a gap in the narrative that needed to be filled out more. 4) I also wonder what this would have been like with another perspective, even just at the end, to challenge the narrator a bit. 5) Who would have known how prevalent a reference [redacted for spoilerish content] circa 1986 would have become to my life since learning about it during a law school writing course?