A review by kats05
Chemistry by Weike Wang

4.0

A wonderful, confidently written debut (I think) novel by daughter of Chinese immigrants, Weike Wang. The book felt like a fictionalised autobiography, and I was most impressed with her honesty, openness and letting the reader see right inside the narrator's head and heart. And it certainly wasn't always pretty what we found there, but it felt so authentic that I truly enjoyed it.

The title is very obviously pertaining not only to the field of study that the narrator (and also the author) was pursuing her PhD in but also to life in general and more specifically the relationship between people, and how friendship, romance and love can be broken down. In fact, the (anti?) heroine of the book certainly has a destructive streak, categorising and breaking down the world around her into its basic chemical properties.

Very clever writing, I hope WW can follow it up with another smart, hopefully more plot driven novel.