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A review by chantale
The Better Mother by Jen Sookfong Lee
5.0
This book is about identity and acknowledging who you are. Everyone is worried about what their family, friends and neighbours will think of them if they knew their dark secrets.
The lives of two strangers intersect: Danny Lim a Chinese boy who grows up gay in the 80's when AIDS was first recognized as a disease and Miss Val/Valerie who is a burlesque dancer in Chinatown. They give each other the courage to no longer hide from those they love.
Danny's relationship with his parent's is strained. He fears his Dad's opinion of him. Danny goes from being embarrassed by his mother and wishing she dressed differently and took better care of herself to accepting her at the end. "He meets his mother's eyes and sees her for what she is: (...)He doesn't wish she were someone else anymore. He doesn't wish that for anyone" (p. 346). We get to experience his mother's hidden self at the end of the book too. I felt a loss and sadness when she thinks "The quiet, muddy-skinned mother couldn't possibly have music and dance and laughter ringing inside her body. Those things belonged to the beautiful people" (p. 334).
A moving and sad book.
The lives of two strangers intersect: Danny Lim a Chinese boy who grows up gay in the 80's when AIDS was first recognized as a disease and Miss Val/Valerie who is a burlesque dancer in Chinatown. They give each other the courage to no longer hide from those they love.
Danny's relationship with his parent's is strained. He fears his Dad's opinion of him. Danny goes from being embarrassed by his mother and wishing she dressed differently and took better care of herself to accepting her at the end. "He meets his mother's eyes and sees her for what she is: (...)He doesn't wish she were someone else anymore. He doesn't wish that for anyone" (p. 346). We get to experience his mother's hidden self at the end of the book too. I felt a loss and sadness when she thinks "The quiet, muddy-skinned mother couldn't possibly have music and dance and laughter ringing inside her body. Those things belonged to the beautiful people" (p. 334).
A moving and sad book.