A review by bryng
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See

5.0

I found this book through a historian who mentioned it in passing while talking about the Chinese exclusion act. I thought, "Oh a history book, this will be a bit of a slog"...and then couldn't put it down. It is an extremely well-written book about the characters of her family and the places and times they lived through. It mostly follows the life and times of her Great Grandfather who came over from China to work and send money home. it follows his struggles to build a business in a country that didn't want any Chinese people here and set up roadblocks so they couldn't live or work here, but no one tells Fong See what he can and can't do and works all the loopholes he can find. If you love books with a lot of character development and descriptions of place, then this is the book for you. (also a fascinating historical record)