A review by gck
Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang, Qian Julie Wang

4.0

Beautiful Country is a literal translation of the Chinese words for the United States, but Qian Julie Wang's memoir of an undocumented child's experience in the United States has many moments that are anything but beautiful. Wang writes the voice and perspective of herself as a child so well that I really felt immersed in her world. She writes many phrases and sentences in Chinese pinyin. They're mostly translated or explained in the following sentences, but for me as a Chinese speaker, I could imagine all of the characters speaking in their native language.

I think Wang's story is important to tell because it is different from how people usually imagine both undocumented families and Chinese families. The poverty and struggles that are described in this memoir are so different from the "model minority" homogenous image that is applied to Asian Americans. 

The main reason this wasn't a 5 star book for me was because I wanted the story to go further. It's mostly about a specific period of Wang's life and ends pretty abruptly after that. Yet we know that she went on to go to a prestigious law school and have a very successful career. I would have been interested to read more of the transition between these two phases of life. Maybe there will be a sequel!

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.