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A review by book_concierge
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
3.0
A semi-autobiographical novel of a young girl’s journey from Hong Kong to New York with her mother, and their pursuit of the American dream.
Eleven-year-old Ah-Kim Chang and her mother arrive in Brooklyn in late autumn from Hong Kong. They’ve been sponsored by her mother’s older sister, Aunt Paula, and her husband, Uncle Bob. The original promise is a job for Kimberly’s mother as a nanny to Paula’s two boys, Nelson and Godfrey, and living in the family’s house on Staten Island. But after a week Aunt Paula says that she really needs her sister to help out at the factory, and moves them to an inexpensive apartment in a building owned by her father-in-law. The apartment is lacking windows in the rear, is without any heat, and infested with roaches, mice and rats. Paula does, at least, give them an alternate address to use so that, she explains, Kimberly can attend a better school (but really so that Paula can control their mail and authorities won’t know they are living in an uninhabitable and condemned building). Ma’s job at the factory is piece work and she quickly discovers that the only way to make deadline is for Kim to come to the factory after school and help. Sometimes they do not finish until after midnight. But Kim and her mother pursue their dream – they know that the key is a good education for Kim and she puts all her energy into this.
I was completely caught up in this story at the outset. Kwok uses “phonetic” spellings to highlight Kim’s difficulties with immersion English and how she had to struggle to understand the most basic instructions from her teacher. This was effective at first, but I got tired of it over time. The same was true with her use of Chinese sayings and then “translating” them for the American reader. For Example “Aunt Paula … said, ‘Your hearts have no roots.’ She meant we were ungrateful.”
My main complaint is my disappointment with the last third of the book, especially the epilogue. I was quite engaged in the tale and was telling friends about it and then …. Well, it seems that Kwok ran out of story and the plot descended into a sort of romantic chick lit soap opera. The ending was rather abrupt, followed by an epilogue that one very serious flaw – the time span didn’t add up. Still, I think it was a good effort for a debut novel. I was pulled into the story and interested in the characters. I liked the way Kimberly matured and the strong relationship between mother and daughter.
Eleven-year-old Ah-Kim Chang and her mother arrive in Brooklyn in late autumn from Hong Kong. They’ve been sponsored by her mother’s older sister, Aunt Paula, and her husband, Uncle Bob. The original promise is a job for Kimberly’s mother as a nanny to Paula’s two boys, Nelson and Godfrey, and living in the family’s house on Staten Island. But after a week Aunt Paula says that she really needs her sister to help out at the factory, and moves them to an inexpensive apartment in a building owned by her father-in-law. The apartment is lacking windows in the rear, is without any heat, and infested with roaches, mice and rats. Paula does, at least, give them an alternate address to use so that, she explains, Kimberly can attend a better school (but really so that Paula can control their mail and authorities won’t know they are living in an uninhabitable and condemned building). Ma’s job at the factory is piece work and she quickly discovers that the only way to make deadline is for Kim to come to the factory after school and help. Sometimes they do not finish until after midnight. But Kim and her mother pursue their dream – they know that the key is a good education for Kim and she puts all her energy into this.
I was completely caught up in this story at the outset. Kwok uses “phonetic” spellings to highlight Kim’s difficulties with immersion English and how she had to struggle to understand the most basic instructions from her teacher. This was effective at first, but I got tired of it over time. The same was true with her use of Chinese sayings and then “translating” them for the American reader. For Example “Aunt Paula … said, ‘Your hearts have no roots.’ She meant we were ungrateful.”
My main complaint is my disappointment with the last third of the book, especially the epilogue. I was quite engaged in the tale and was telling friends about it and then …. Well, it seems that Kwok ran out of story and the plot descended into a sort of romantic chick lit soap opera. The ending was rather abrupt, followed by an epilogue that one very serious flaw – the time span didn’t add up. Still, I think it was a good effort for a debut novel. I was pulled into the story and interested in the characters. I liked the way Kimberly matured and the strong relationship between mother and daughter.