Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

Beautiful Country: A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood by Qian Julie Wang

11 reviews

drlainie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Stalking, Abortion, and Death of parent

adrienne_rennie's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

hollydyer328's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

Certainly a challenging story of Qian Julie Wang's experience growing up as an undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York City, and her navigating barriers of poverty and healthcare. The story is solely focused on her childhood from ages ~7-11, and it went into specific details that I felt were unnecessary and slowed down the pacing. My favorite was the last 2 chapters and I wanted to hear more of her experience as she got older and dealt with the demons from her childhood. 

Because the story is so focused on these ~5 years of her life in the US, the memoir came off as her processing childhood trauma. It's pretty bleak throughout with little redemption or coming of age, except it is slightly mentioned by the very end. This story almost feels too personal for the general public to read (and purchase), and I'm not sure what the takeaways are other than awareness and empathy for one account of the undocumented immigrant experience. 

I listened on audio read by the author, and the narration was helpful for the pronunciation of Chinese phrases, but the tone lacked the emotion that would have enhanced the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

it always feels so odd to me, in some way, to talk about and rate memoirs because its somebodys life that youre, in essence, putting a number value on, so rather than try and do that ill just say that i loved the way Qian spoke about her life in the most intimate way that somebody can do; giving us the bad times, the good times, the scary times, and the times that maybe didnt paint her in the best light.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Excrement

mildlypretentiousreader's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

“Our family was closest in the face of pain.”

“Why were we expected to speak English while praising Americans for even the crumbiest dribble of Chinese?” 

Qian Julie Wang’s Beautiful Country details her life as an undocumented immigrant in New York City. As a young child, Qian and her mother reunite with her father in “Mei Guo,” the Chinese word for America meaning “Beautiful Country.” Mei Guo turns out to be anything but beautiful. 

Told through the lenses of a child, we peek into the fearful and harrowing life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant family. The Wang family is forced to live 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Hate crime, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Medical content, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

jobaji's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Deportation

Moderate: Body shaming

bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Cancer

emilyrose724's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Probably the best written and most moving book I’ve read all year, I wish I could rate it more than 5 stars

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Classism, and Deportation

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I really don't know if I would have been able to manage this memoire without listening to the Audiobook, deftly narrated by the author. Being self-narrated it dodged a lot of messy casting issues such as having a reader who could not pronounce Chinese. I'm thankful for that.

Beautiful Country is a direct translation of the Chinese term for USA  美国 - Mĕiguó . Whenever I hear " Mĕiguó " spoken, I picture the characters in my mind. A year working at a Chinese Newspaper will do that to a nerdy lass who likes languages. I have always been struck by how ironic the name is. The memoire written is an awakening from a childhood where the author needs to protect herself over and again, from the perils of being an "illegal" migrant. When any false word could get you deported, you learn to say what people want to hear. 

From sweat shops, and bigoted teachers, buying the cheapest food possible, and making do with forgaed treasures, this is a candid story of poverty, Racism, and survival. I found the descriptions reminded me of many things that have been part of my life, and drew stark contrast between some of my own experiences as a White New Zealander ( Pākeha ) living in a country with social security. 

I expect that some of this recounting may be affronting to those who are unaware of the type of life that oppressed people can easily fall into. The story is that of someone who has survived, but doesn't really feel as saccharine as a lot of inspiration stories can be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Gun violence, Pedophilia, and Abortion

revolution666's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Deportation

Minor: Cursing and Domestic abuse