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annacayco 's review for:
Joan Is Okay
by Weike Wang
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Joan is Okay by Weike Wang is a short novel I picked up while browsing my local public library. Joan is the division chief of an ICU in an NYC hospital. The thirtysomething Chinese American woman tries to balance the needs of her patients and the needs of her family. Her father’s death makes her question the tension between the two and her own minimalist lifestyle.
Choosing between the hospital and family is a normal problem doctors have. One of the reasons why I picked up the book is because my own parents are doctors who struggle with this. However, her colleagues, relatives, neighbors, and even the doorman are more worried about are what is left of Joan’s life. This includes her lack of social life, hobbies, and apartment décor.
Her ignorance on why these things are important was endearing instead of concerning to read. With her pure dedication to her practice, she meekly dodges these disruptions to her professional life. And once Joan is forced by the hospital to have downtime, she starts to immerse herself in American pop culture. It was hilarious and ironic for her to discover Seinfeld and Friends for the first time and why they were supposed to be funny in her own Manhattan apartment.
Joan’s minimalism contrasts her brother’s lifestyle, who is living the Asian-American dream and constantly tells her to follow his lead. Fang has reached ridiculous levels of wealth with an upstate NY family compound complete with household staff and ostentatious family parties. But Joan has no interest in these things and Fang holds that against her.
Even her stream of consciousness is reserved. This makes each anecdote, no matter how small, packed with honesty, earnestness, and wit. There is no fluff in these 212 pages.
But I wish there were 20 more pages to this novel. Towards the end, Joan briskly describes the pandemic entering NYC. This was the first novel I read that references the pandemic. While it was interesting to see things unfold through her perspective, she seemed to brush past how drastic things actually were, especially as a doctor in NYC and as a Chinese-American woman. Weike Wang fumbles in tying in the deaths of thousands with Joan’s grief for her father.
Still, Joan is Okay is a refreshing and endearing short novel. It examines what modern-day loneliness looks like in different spaces - at home, with family, at work, and in being an American immigrant. And with all of this, I would say Joan seems to be doing okay.
Joan is Okay by Weike Wang is a short novel I picked up while browsing my local public library. Joan is the division chief of an ICU in an NYC hospital. The thirtysomething Chinese American woman tries to balance the needs of her patients and the needs of her family. Her father’s death makes her question the tension between the two and her own minimalist lifestyle.
Choosing between the hospital and family is a normal problem doctors have. One of the reasons why I picked up the book is because my own parents are doctors who struggle with this. However, her colleagues, relatives, neighbors, and even the doorman are more worried about are what is left of Joan’s life. This includes her lack of social life, hobbies, and apartment décor.
Her ignorance on why these things are important was endearing instead of concerning to read. With her pure dedication to her practice, she meekly dodges these disruptions to her professional life. And once Joan is forced by the hospital to have downtime, she starts to immerse herself in American pop culture. It was hilarious and ironic for her to discover Seinfeld and Friends for the first time and why they were supposed to be funny in her own Manhattan apartment.
Joan’s minimalism contrasts her brother’s lifestyle, who is living the Asian-American dream and constantly tells her to follow his lead. Fang has reached ridiculous levels of wealth with an upstate NY family compound complete with household staff and ostentatious family parties. But Joan has no interest in these things and Fang holds that against her.
Even her stream of consciousness is reserved. This makes each anecdote, no matter how small, packed with honesty, earnestness, and wit. There is no fluff in these 212 pages.
But I wish there were 20 more pages to this novel. Towards the end, Joan briskly describes the pandemic entering NYC. This was the first novel I read that references the pandemic. While it was interesting to see things unfold through her perspective, she seemed to brush past how drastic things actually were, especially as a doctor in NYC and as a Chinese-American woman. Weike Wang fumbles in tying in the deaths of thousands with Joan’s grief for her father.
Still, Joan is Okay is a refreshing and endearing short novel. It examines what modern-day loneliness looks like in different spaces - at home, with family, at work, and in being an American immigrant. And with all of this, I would say Joan seems to be doing okay.