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

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i thought the themes of climate, class, and the intersection between the two were intimately explored, especially through the lens of the unnamed narrator who felt very much a voyeur, both in the real world (she felt un-grounded in the scenes before the land of milk and honey) and, much more clearly, when she was on the mountain. the use of food here, a pleasure that is integral to survival much more so than other pleasures, like sex or alcohol or drugs, felt so real and relevant, especially in our modern age where the smallest step off of the edge of equilibrium could cause a crash with far reaching repercussions. I loved learning about the relationships between mothers and daughters in this book too - the narrator and her mother and their distance through to death, aida and her mother's fraught, misunderstandings, and then the narrator and her own daughter, breaking cycles and finding ways to keep life going. i wished for more for aida who grew up without a real chance in life, despite all her privileges, and it made me think lots about the ways in which our privilege blinds us to the opportunities in front of us, and how we are so often stuck in our prescribed routes and paths that even our aspirations are limited to the width of our imaginations. left me thinking and i would really recommend this one, even moreso than the other one by this author that i've read.