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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps overrated, May 29 1999
The story is fascinating, but the writing was not. Contantly intertwining facts with the story, it was hard to focus on the primary elements. Too much of the feelings and thoughts were imagined, and not "real", even with all of the research that was done. The end got long-winded with all of the names that were before secondary. As this review is coming from a high schol senior, many would not trust the judgment here, but in defense of that, read it for yourself. This is a good story that could have been handled differently, and than gotten more literary attention, as it deserves.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful epic love story set in historical background.., Mar 1 2003
As a Chinese American myself, I've read "China Boy" (Gus Lee) and "Joy Luck Club" (Amy Tan) before picking up this book without too much expectation, what happened next was two days of non-stop reading, after the first few pages, I simply couldn't put it down, the pages turned themselves. At the center of it, there was the meandering main plot of Fong See and Ticie See's beautiful and complex interracial love story
spanning three quarter of a century with cultural, traditions, prejudices (on both sides) racism, entrepreneurship, minority immigrant experience weaving together to form a compelling and surprisingly optimistic epic and quintessential "American" story. All through the book, author's family pride, heartwarming optimism comes through like a ray of sunshine lighting up the struggles, the failures and failings, the successes as well as heart wrenching losses of three generations illuminating the See family's incredibly enduring love and support for each other. The only thing that could've made this book even better is some of the extraneous details could've been left out, they were a little long winded (especially the last scene of Lisa's visit to China) and at times distracting from the main plot. But I understand what Ms. See was trying to accomplish with this book are two fold, first and foremost it is an autobiographic family history book and there is the temptation to include all the researched details to preserve as family history, on the other hand she probably wanted to write it in a novel style to make it an easy and enjoyable read. Short of split the writing into two books, there is no easy way to accomplish both objectives without two styles interfering, but I have to say Ms See has done an admirable if not remarkable job considering the epic nature of the story itself. Ms. See deserves major accolades for this fascinating and moving historical book.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful epic love story set in historical background.., Mar 1 2003
As a Chinese American myself, I've read "China Boy" (Gus Lee) and Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) before picking up this book without too much expectation, what happened next was two days of non-stop reading, after the first few pages, I simply couldn't put it down, the pages turned themselves. As a Chinese American myself, I've read "China Boy" (Gus Lee) and Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) before picking up this book without too much expectation, what happened next was two days of non-stop reading, after the first few pages, I simply couldn't put it down, the pages turned themselves. At the center of it, there was the meandering main plot of Fong See and Ticie See's beautiful and complex interracial love story
spanning three quarter of a century with cultural, traditions, prejudices (on both sides) racism, entrepreneurship, minority immigrant experience weaving together to form a compelling and surprisingly optimistic epic and quintessential "American" story. All through the book, author's family pride, heartwarming optimism comes through like a ray of sunshine lighting up the struggles, the failures and failings, the successes as well as heart wrenching losses of three generations illuminating the See family's incredibly enduring love and support for each other. The only thing that could've made this book even better is some of the extraneous details could've been left out, they were a little long winded (especially the last scene of Lisa's visit to China) and at times distracting from the main plot. But I understand what Ms. See was trying to accomplish with this book are two fold, first and foremost it is an autobiographic family history book and there is the temptation to include all the researched details to preserve as family history, on the other hand she probably wanted to write it in a novel style to make it an easy and enjoyable read. Short of split the writing into two books, there is no easy way to accomplish both objectives without two styles interfering, but I have to say Ms See has done an admirable if not remarkable job considering the epic nature of the story itself. Ms. See deserves major accolades for this fascinating and moving historical book.
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