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A review by jenpaul13
Chemistry by Weike Wang
4.0
Navigating through the (adult) world is a trying task, but we all have to make an attempt at some point. Chemistry by Weike Wang follows one Ph.D. student's attempt to make sense of her life and what she truly wants.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Years into her graduate work in chemistry at Boston University, the narrator struggles under the pressures she's facing: her boyfriend wants to marry her and move to Ohio for his job, her parents demand perfection from her, and with her research stalling, she just doesn't know what she wants anymore. As the pressure gets to be too much, she reaches a breaking point and removes herself from the academic world and breaks it off with her boyfriend. While trying to figure out what she wants to do in her future, she recalls and evaluates parts of her past trying to find how she can be happy.
This story is a reflection and cautionary tale of society's demand for us to find a meaningful calling and pursue it wholeheartedly, which typically places undue pressure on us and leaves many feeling like failures when they don't achieve things by a certain age. The language choices and the non-chronological, episodic structure of the narrative helped to convey a strong sense of character for a non-native English speaker and someone whose mind tends toward the logical or scientific side. I found the nameless narrator rather frustrating at times with her inability to act or communicate, but the emotions and situations she struggled through were relatable for young people trying to define themselves.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
Years into her graduate work in chemistry at Boston University, the narrator struggles under the pressures she's facing: her boyfriend wants to marry her and move to Ohio for his job, her parents demand perfection from her, and with her research stalling, she just doesn't know what she wants anymore. As the pressure gets to be too much, she reaches a breaking point and removes herself from the academic world and breaks it off with her boyfriend. While trying to figure out what she wants to do in her future, she recalls and evaluates parts of her past trying to find how she can be happy.
This story is a reflection and cautionary tale of society's demand for us to find a meaningful calling and pursue it wholeheartedly, which typically places undue pressure on us and leaves many feeling like failures when they don't achieve things by a certain age. The language choices and the non-chronological, episodic structure of the narrative helped to convey a strong sense of character for a non-native English speaker and someone whose mind tends toward the logical or scientific side. I found the nameless narrator rather frustrating at times with her inability to act or communicate, but the emotions and situations she struggled through were relatable for young people trying to define themselves.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.