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A review by onejordo
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See
3.0
I've enjoyed nearly every book I've read by Lisa See. I had this book on my To Be Read shelf for quite a while before I finally picked up a copy. It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, but it was an interesting biography of a family that immigrated to America.
See's other books are fictional. I appreciate the amount of research she had to do in order to put this book together, but I think she's a much better fictional writer than a biographer. The family members she writes about are intriguing. The 100 year history sure does contain a large number of characters, as one might imagine. However, I don't feel like this story is probably all that unique. Yes, it's quite different from my family's history. But this certainly isn't the only family to come to America from China and work hard to make a home for themselves.
The history of the Chinese population coming to America was pretty interesting. The way American citizens treated the Chinese is deplorable. However, the determination of Fong See to become a wealthy, respected man in a place where he was initially unwanted was inspiring to read about. Overall, this was a good book to read, but nothing that will knock your socks off.
See's other books are fictional. I appreciate the amount of research she had to do in order to put this book together, but I think she's a much better fictional writer than a biographer. The family members she writes about are intriguing. The 100 year history sure does contain a large number of characters, as one might imagine. However, I don't feel like this story is probably all that unique. Yes, it's quite different from my family's history. But this certainly isn't the only family to come to America from China and work hard to make a home for themselves.
The history of the Chinese population coming to America was pretty interesting. The way American citizens treated the Chinese is deplorable. However, the determination of Fong See to become a wealthy, respected man in a place where he was initially unwanted was inspiring to read about. Overall, this was a good book to read, but nothing that will knock your socks off.