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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Takeaway: Stories From a Childhood Behind the Counter by Angela Hui
16 reviews
vickywong710's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
I really wanted to give this book a full five stars, and I wanted to really love this book, but for me the book was just ok in parts. That said, it really picks up at the end. Probably more of a 3.5/3.75 out out of five stars.
As a child of Chinese takeaway owners, there were moments in this memoir that mirrored a lot of my own personal experiences of working in the family takeaway and there were a few moments that were quite close to the bone.
I liked the recipes and am eager to try those out. I also really appreciated the section at the end where she acknowledges that her memoir is only one such experience of what it is to be British-Asian, and no one person can fully represent or encapsulate the experiences of a very diverse diaspora.
I was also a 90s kid so a lot of the 90s/early-200s specific references like the Kookai bags and Myspace friends configurations were a nice throwback to have and gives you that sense of time and place.
It does have a tendency to lean too much into cliche, but I was willing to let that slide because it is a memoir written with a lot of sincerity.
The biggest and probably only letdown was some of the writing, and I will admit a lot of this could possibly just be a me problem.
I used to do food reviews in a previous job as a reporter in Hong Kong; part of that job involved getting a lot of F&B press releases, and there moments in the writing where it felt like reading an F&B press release description of food. I am the first to admit I was also not great at writing food reviews so wouldn’t have done any better, but food writing is very tricky and there’s only so many times you can use the word “umami” to describe a dish even if it’s used sincerely.
I think a huge part of why sometimes the food descriptions didn’t work for me is because I had recently finished Fuchsia Dunlop’s Invitation to a Banquet, which is just a mesmerising book about the history of Chinese food with beautiful descriptions of specific dishes.
Although the slightly more casual almost conversational writing style worked in parts of this book, there were some moments where that style just doesn’t work as well. There were moments that did at time feel repetitive, even some of the food descriptions get a bit repetitive.
I think the editing on this book could have been a bit tighter, you occasionally get clumsily-worded sentences like “Free of speech and living standards have been drastically deteriorating over the past decade, but Hong Kong remains one of the most densely populated cities in the world with 7.4 million people…” which makes sense but feel like it could have been rewritten a bit better.
Overall, enjoyed the book enough, I think it’s an important book to have in terms of broadening the number of books about the British-Asian experience, and hope there are more after this.
Content Warnings
Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism
notlikethebeer's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I reaaaaally enjoyed this! I don't think there's much I can say that doesn't sound incredibly trite, but I really appreciated all of it, and found it super interesting. Angela Hui did incredibly well to balance her writing, and to approach some very hard topics with such grace. The ending did feel a bit rushed, but otherwise, an excellent read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Xenophobia
shelbygibbs's review
challenging
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Medical content
katndrsn's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Sexual harassment and War
jacks_bookshelf's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
eveattwood's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Domestic abuse
amyvl93's review
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Takeaway is a memoir that I've heard lots of great things about, so was excited to finally pick it up. It follows Hui's childhood in rural Wales, where she and her family lived and ran a Chinese takeaway.
There was lots in here I found really interesting - I'd had no idea that many Chinese migrants moved to rural areas, and the ways in which they stayed in touch with other members of their community through weekly get-togethers and maintaining some cultural traditions. It also looks at the ways in which the family were and weren't welcomed by the Valleys community they lived in - and Hui's complicated feelings about her Chinese and British identities. There's also some excellent food writing in here, both about how certain dishes were introduced to align with British palettes and also recipes for the meals that the family cooked and ate. Hui is a similar age to me, so I did enjoy some of the contemporary references to the early 00s that I recognised.
I did find that this memoir was often quite repetitive, there were repeated anecdotes and historical information which meant that the reading experience wasn't always that great, maybe the memoir could have been slightly shorter to ensure that the important messages in here didn't get diluted too much.
There was lots in here I found really interesting - I'd had no idea that many Chinese migrants moved to rural areas, and the ways in which they stayed in touch with other members of their community through weekly get-togethers and maintaining some cultural traditions. It also looks at the ways in which the family were and weren't welcomed by the Valleys community they lived in - and Hui's complicated feelings about her Chinese and British identities. There's also some excellent food writing in here, both about how certain dishes were introduced to align with British palettes and also recipes for the meals that the family cooked and ate. Hui is a similar age to me, so I did enjoy some of the contemporary references to the early 00s that I recognised.
I did find that this memoir was often quite repetitive, there were repeated anecdotes and historical information which meant that the reading experience wasn't always that great, maybe the memoir could have been slightly shorter to ensure that the important messages in here didn't get diluted too much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
a_serpent_with_corners's review
emotional
funny
fast-paced
This is well-trodden ground: a second-generation immigrant memoir centred on questions of cultural identity and the often painful generational differences between children and their parents, filtered through the lens of food. There's a lot to like about Takeaway, but in the end I can't say I completely took to it.
It's not that it doesn't have anything going for it. The tone is chatty and inviting, the recounting of the day-to-day running of the takeaway was eye-opening, there's a real warmth to the family relationships recounted in the book, and the descriptions of food are suitably mouth-watering. The loving recollections of the taste, texture, and smell of various dishes are by far the best parts of the book proper. There are some moving moments, especiallyher troubled relationship with her father and the mixed feelings that came with finally selling the titular takeaway . The accounts of the racism her family experienced are confronting and painful to read, not least Hui makes it clear how ordinary they were.
However, it's also repetitive and direct to the point of excess. So many times, the book would simply proclaim things to the effect of 'unlike in other families, my family expressed our love not with words but with food' (I don't think this is as uncommon as the book seems to suggest either, but that's beside the point); 'I felt embarrassed about being Chinese, I just wanted to be normal'; 'I wasn't Chinese enough for people in Hong Kong and I wasn't British enough for people in Wales'; and so on. The issue isn't that these ideas aren't interesting or sincerely-felt, nor is it just a matter of 'telling rather than showing' (I'd argue that memoirs in particular can tolerate direct telling quite well), but more that they were always phrased in the simplest way, then restated repeatedly, often in very similar terms to the first time without bringing in anything new to justify the repetition. I wondered if it might have benefitted from a more ruthless editorial hand.
Of course, that this kind of story has been told before isn't itself an issue -it's an important and compelling story. However, the level of reflection on these experiences was sometimes a bit shallow and I'm not sure distinguishes itself in a crowded field that contains many other excellent books. Takeaway features some great supplementary material - not only the generously-provided recipies, but the suggestions for further reading in the appendix. Unfortunately, this can end up doing Takeaway something of a disservice (though it does a great service to the reader) - bringing up books like Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown or Nicole Chung's All You Can Ever Know unfortunately in my case had the effect of making me wish I was reading something more like those books, which I found more interestingly-written and to have explored their central ideas in greater depth and with more flair.
In short - a quick, lively read. Not unenjoyable, but it left me wanting more.I'll spare myself the shame of trotting out something like "digestable but not altogether nourishing".
It's not that it doesn't have anything going for it. The tone is chatty and inviting, the recounting of the day-to-day running of the takeaway was eye-opening, there's a real warmth to the family relationships recounted in the book, and the descriptions of food are suitably mouth-watering. The loving recollections of the taste, texture, and smell of various dishes are by far the best parts of the book proper. There are some moving moments, especially
However, it's also repetitive and direct to the point of excess. So many times, the book would simply proclaim things to the effect of 'unlike in other families, my family expressed our love not with words but with food' (I don't think this is as uncommon as the book seems to suggest either, but that's beside the point); 'I felt embarrassed about being Chinese, I just wanted to be normal'; 'I wasn't Chinese enough for people in Hong Kong and I wasn't British enough for people in Wales'; and so on. The issue isn't that these ideas aren't interesting or sincerely-felt, nor is it just a matter of 'telling rather than showing' (I'd argue that memoirs in particular can tolerate direct telling quite well), but more that they were always phrased in the simplest way, then restated repeatedly, often in very similar terms to the first time without bringing in anything new to justify the repetition. I wondered if it might have benefitted from a more ruthless editorial hand.
Of course, that this kind of story has been told before isn't itself an issue -it's an important and compelling story. However, the level of reflection on these experiences was sometimes a bit shallow and I'm not sure distinguishes itself in a crowded field that contains many other excellent books. Takeaway features some great supplementary material - not only the generously-provided recipies, but the suggestions for further reading in the appendix. Unfortunately, this can end up doing Takeaway something of a disservice (though it does a great service to the reader) - bringing up books like Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown or Nicole Chung's All You Can Ever Know unfortunately in my case had the effect of making me wish I was reading something more like those books, which I found more interestingly-written and to have explored their central ideas in greater depth and with more flair.
In short - a quick, lively read. Not unenjoyable, but it left me wanting more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism
bethancy's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
I devoured this book. I loved it. I grew up in a small village in Wales and one of my best friends' parents owned the local Chinese takeaway. Really enjoyed this memoir, though upsetting at times to read about the discrimination and abuse the Hui family had to go through. Each chapter has a recipe at the end, what a bonus!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Xenophobia
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Racism
Minor: Eating disorder
madamelacy's review
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Really interesting and thought-provoking. I have a renewed admiration for people who run takeaways. Such a hard life!
The book was a bit repetitive in places, but generally well-written.
The book was a bit repetitive in places, but generally well-written.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual harassment