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A review by dude_watchin_with_the_brontes
The Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin
5.0
A tale of leaving and returning, of tigers and humans, anger and forgiveness. More than once it brought tears to my eyes - although it was written for children, the questions at the heart of this book are ones we still grapple with as adults, especially those of us who were raised in the tiger's den.
This book asks us who we become when we hold on to our anger, and what we create when we treat others with fear, or with kindness. Warning for both spoilers and possible triggers (allusion to domestic abuse):
I listened to the audiobook, and Kim Mai Guest's narration brings Lin's book beautifully to life. There's a dreaminess to the narration that matches the blurring between realism and myth. I love the bits of music that precede each story-within-the-story. I also took a look at the written book, because there are beautiful illustrations throughout the book. I'm sure the illustrations are even more meaningful to those able to read the Chinese characters in them. Whichever method you choose to read this book, you can't go wrong. I look forward to reading more books by Grace Lin, including the companion piece, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
This book asks us who we become when we hold on to our anger, and what we create when we treat others with fear, or with kindness. Warning for both spoilers and possible triggers (allusion to domestic abuse):
Spoiler
Coming from an abusive home, I was distressed by the universality of the final message of forgiveness and return. While I agree that holding on to our anger hurts us more than it hurts our abusers, I think sometimes forgiveness must be done from a distance, if at all. Some of the returns felt right - there had been words or deeds done in anger, in the context of a mostly loving home, such as the case of Chao's and Yan's families. But I found the story of Chang and WangYi distressing - feeding into the idea that a woman must take a man back if he has truly changed (which, translated into real life, is hard to distinguish from manipulation). And the idea of Rendi returning to his family because his abusive father loves and misses him... It just hit a little too close to home. His (and my father's) sorrow and regret may be real, but the abuser's feelings should not take precedence over another's safety.I listened to the audiobook, and Kim Mai Guest's narration brings Lin's book beautifully to life. There's a dreaminess to the narration that matches the blurring between realism and myth. I love the bits of music that precede each story-within-the-story. I also took a look at the written book, because there are beautiful illustrations throughout the book. I'm sure the illustrations are even more meaningful to those able to read the Chinese characters in them. Whichever method you choose to read this book, you can't go wrong. I look forward to reading more books by Grace Lin, including the companion piece, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.