Reviews

I feel like this book is literally written for me and that I am meant to read this right now amidst the career and personal contemplations/crisis I’m going through.

I can relate to the main character on so many fronts: from feeling invisible and dismissed at work as a woman of color despite putting in 10 times the work, to encountering racial micro-aggressions from white saviors/fetishizers who consider themselves liberal allies and struggling to reconcile the two halves of the culture that make up my identity but not feeling entirely understood by either.

there are so many moments in this book that i couldn’t help but aggressively nod in agreement with. i loved the conversations she exchanged with her family and the strong but unique bond she shares with each member of the family. The quote her father said to her about trust and dependability always being a given in their relationship was so beautiful it made me tear up a bit.

i also especially loved the later half of the book where she drew parallels between her own personal life and that of Kin Yamei’s (the first Chinese woman to earn a medical degree in the US). It is so inspiring to read about how self-assured and forward thinking she is in pursuing her career aspirations in a field that was unwelcoming to women and especially immigrant women. Her firmness in establishing her independence as a new woman who refuses to surrender to racial stereotypes and gender oppression is especially formidable given the time period. the snippets of the early Asian American immigrant history especially struck me, I can’t help but to want to dig deeper to uncover those forgotten stories.

reading this book overall has made me feel so seen and enlightened. this is the type of book that reminds me of the reasons why I read. I cannot wait to read her other work Tomb Sweeping.

mbincolor's review

Go to review page

4.0

I like books that present people’s thoughts about their life and choices. Books that seem like they originated in the author’s journal. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Should I do this or that? What are the repercussions of this choice? What is the history surrounding my choices?

I recently tried to read Motherhood by Sheila Heti and I just couldn’t get through it, despite liking the themes and having similar interests as the narrator. Admittedly, I struggled a bit with this one too in its book form, but the audiobook did it for me. Maybe I should I should try to find Heti’s book on audio....