A review by notesbynnenna
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

4.0

America is supposedly a beautiful country, full of opportunity for everyone. This is a memoir about the author’s journey of moving from China to the United States as a young kid, and growing up undocmented in America. And she quickly discovers that America is not exactly the beautiful country she’d envisioned. 

She describes her family’s struggles to make a life here, to survive here. And we see how the fear that comes from being undocumented will stay with her for a long, long time. The author had a difficult childhood. They are poor and she and her mom work in a sweatshop to make money. She is constantly malnourished because there is not enough money to feed her properly. It was heartbreaking to read about how she doesn’t want to burden her parents with her hunger.

A few times she mentions her love for reading and how books kept her company when she didn’t have anyone else. She also writes about poor treatment from some of her teachers- how they underestimate her and how she succeeds despite them.

I listened to this book on audio (I love listening to a memoir when it’s narrated by the author) and I thought the audiobook was great. I felt she did a really good job of writing from a child’s perspective, which is not an easy thing to do. This was a beautiful memoir of the author’s experience of growing up as an immigrant in America and a stark reminder of the fact that America does not treat all of its people equally.