Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Beautiful Country: A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood

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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mrsdarcylynn's review against another edition

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3.0

3- “It was okay”

I think this was a pretty middle of the road memoir for me. The author narrates the entirety from the perspective of her childhood self and hits on some important issues with being the child of undocumented immigrants.

For me, the lack of contextualization made this a weaker memoir. There is no hindsight, the author doesn’t bring any of her present understandings to bear on these past memories. You kind of just get the stories. Which is fine, but doesn’t make it a standout for me. I didn’t get a sense that there was a call to action, any insight, just observation.

I also thought she lingered too long on some of the animal violence and excrement pieces of her childhood memories. There wasn’t much of a point to those parts of the stories.

Overall, an okay read.

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taylorfield's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

April 2024 Book Club read

Long Story Short: At 5-years-old, Qian Julie Wang and her mother left China for the “Beautiful Country” to reunite with her father, who’d been in the US for two years already. This memoir follows the strife, sacrifice, and resilience of the next five years through the lens of a child’s eyes.

<blockquote>“There was a Chinese idiom I came to know later because Ma Ma and Ba Ba would repeat it to me in those moments: “Purple comes from blue but is superior to blue.” It was inevitable, they seemed to believe, that I would one day outshine them in the best and worst ways.”</blockquote>

I greatly admire Qian Julie Wang’s bravery to share her childhood trauma and the imperfections of her family, and as a random reader I’m not owed any further acknowledgement or explanations of her life’s story and experience in America. At the same time, because so many explanations were left out, I found myself having to guess about catalysts, intentions, and reasonings. <i>Beautiful Country</i> reads more like a child’s diary, which is fine, but not what I expected based on the blurb and “How It Began” sections. So many things were glossed over despite them feeling really important.

Enjoyment: 2/5
Craft: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5

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dominicangirl's review against another edition

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sad fast-paced

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anniover's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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