I read this graphic novel for my book club. It's got a story structure that I enjoy very much and is a good fit for the storytelling flexibility that graphic novels can provide: there are three separate yet connected stories that are being told in alternating chapters, and each of them is compelling on its own but come together in a satisfying way. The first story is a fable about the Monkey King, who loves dinner parties and is rejected from one for being a monkey. So he goes back to his kingdom and does everything he can not to be a monkey, to the point where his actions cause him to lose everything rather than gain everything and he must make a choice and all that.
The second story is the primary story, and it's the one that makes the book read the most like a memoir (which I think it is). It's about a Chinese-American boy named Jin Wang whose family moves from Chinatown in San Francisco to an unnamed very white suburb and struggles to find his way. He has one friend, a boy from Taiwan who blends in even less, and in middle school he develops a crush on a white girl.
The third story is about a white teenager named Danny who has a cousin who visits him from China every year. His cousin is a pretty dramatic and clearly satirical version of a Chinese caricature, and this third tale feels even less strictly realistic than the Monkey King fable.
I really enjoyed this book right up until the end, which didn't quite land for me. It felt very abrupt, and left a number of threads unresolved in ways that weakened the entire book for me. Jin Wang's experiences felt so true to life, and the details of being a child in the eighties in particular were so specific and grounding, that the ending was almost too metaphorical and didn't end up satisfying me as a result. The book as a whole is still worth reading, but I expected it to nail the ending after such a solid build up, and it didn't.
Grade: B
The second story is the primary story, and it's the one that makes the book read the most like a memoir (which I think it is). It's about a Chinese-American boy named Jin Wang whose family moves from Chinatown in San Francisco to an unnamed very white suburb and struggles to find his way. He has one friend, a boy from Taiwan who blends in even less, and in middle school he develops a crush on a white girl.
The third story is about a white teenager named Danny who has a cousin who visits him from China every year. His cousin is a pretty dramatic and clearly satirical version of a Chinese caricature, and this third tale feels even less strictly realistic than the Monkey King fable.
I really enjoyed this book right up until the end, which didn't quite land for me. It felt very abrupt, and left a number of threads unresolved in ways that weakened the entire book for me. Jin Wang's experiences felt so true to life, and the details of being a child in the eighties in particular were so specific and grounding, that the ending was almost too metaphorical and didn't end up satisfying me as a result. The book as a whole is still worth reading, but I expected it to nail the ending after such a solid build up, and it didn't.
Grade: B
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