Review: Little Gods (by Meng Jin)

My Rating: 3 stars

 

As I sit down to write this review, I’m struggling a bit because I’m trying to figure out what my feelings are toward this book.  Normally, when I read a book, I will either gravitate towards one side or another in terms of liking the book or not liking it – interestingly enough, this is actually one of those rare instances where I feel ambivalent and perhaps, if I’m being honest, not really sure how to react.  While there were definitely things that I appreciated about this book – such as the historical and cultural references, which I thought were incorporated seamlessly throughout the story -- there were an equal amount of things that made the reading experience a bit more exhausting than I would’ve liked. 

The structure of the narrative is unique in that, even though the main character of the story is Su Lan, a Chinese woman who overcomes her village upbringing to become a brilliant physicist, we as readers never get to “meet” this character directly.  Instead, we are given glimpses into Su Lan’s life through the recollections of those who had interacted with her or had been a part of her life at some point – a nameless nurse at the hospital in Beijing where Su Lan had given birth; Zhu Wen, who was Su Lan’s landlady when she lived in Shanghai and also the last person Su Lan interacted with before leaving China; Su Lan’s husband Yongzong, with whom she had daughter; and finally Liya, the daughter with whom Su Lan had a strained, complicated relationship.  Through these anecdotal recollections, almost all of which were told from each character’s first-person perspective, we are slowly given the various “pieces” that eventually come together to form an enigmatic portrait of Su Lan’s life.  This narrative structure was indeed interesting, however by the end of the story, I actually felt confusion rather than clarity, as each character seemed to paint conflicting images of Su Lan, to the point that, despite being told so much about her, I still felt like I never really “knew” her.

I think the biggest issue I had with this book was the writing, which I would describe as being a little too “experimental” for my tastes.  I know other reviewers mentioned the lack of quotation marks for all the dialogue, which didn’t bother me too much actually.  Instead, what didn’t work too well for me was the abstract quality of the writing, especially with the descriptions of events that took place or things that were happening to the characters — I’m not sure if I’m describing this correctly, but it felt almost as though the story and the characters kept “shape-shifting” from one scene to the next.  For example, the scene would be about Liya encountering someone from Su Lan’s past and suddenly, Liya would become Su Lan, wearing the same clothes as her, thinking the same thoughts as her, but then the next minute, she would be Liya again.  Throughout most of the story, it felt like the characters kept jumping in and out of dreams and memories that would get mixed in with their current realities – this made trying to follow the story quite a bit more difficult than it really needed to be.  In addition, interspersed through the story were mentions about various aspects of science – more specifically, about theoretical physics as it pertains to human behavior, the laws of thermodynamics and its relation to time, mathematical theory and probability, etc. – all of which went way over my head, as I’ve never been interested in science or math and so had no clue what any of that stuff was about.  Thankfully, the segments that actually went into detail about the science aspects were few and far between and also relatively brief, which made it a tad less tortuous but definitely added to the difficulty in following the story.

Also, despite this being a largely character-driven story, I actually didn’t feel much of a connection with the characters, even though the fact that we share the same culture should’ve made it easier.  In addition, I felt a sense of being emotionally detached from the story and the characters, which, thinking about it now, I’m wondering if that was intentional on the author’s part, given that all the characters themselves seemed to also be emotionally detached from the subject they were reminiscing about (Su Lan).

Overall, I would say that this was a “different” reading experience for me.  It wasn’t completely negative of course (otherwise my scoring would be lower), but I wouldn’t say it was hugely positive either.  While I appreciate what the author was trying to do here and applaud her for breaking from tradition and delivering a well-written (in the larger scheme of things) literary debut that is both unique and thought-provoking, I recognize that perhaps I just wasn’t the right audience for this book.  Hopefully the “right” audience for this book will be able to read and appreciate it better than I have.

Received ARC from Custom House (HarperCollins) via NetGalley.

Review: You Were There Too (by Colleen Oakley)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

This is a book that left me conflicted and struggling for quite some time trying to sort out how I felt about the story and its characters. When I read the summary and understood the premise of the story would be about a woman who repeatedly sees the same man in her dreams and then upon meeting him in real life, she finds out he sees her in his dreams as well, the first thought that popped into my head was that this would perhaps be yet another love story involving time-travel.  I’ve actually read a few time-travel related romances the past few years and my reaction to them has been mostly mixed – some I enjoyed immensely while others I really struggled through…so going into this, I had a certain expectation of what this book would be like.   Well, it turns out I was wrong, as this book actually had nothing at all to do with time travel – rather, this was a uniquely original love story about fate and coincidence and the complexities of relationships, with their constant ups-and-downs. 

I found the premise interesting, however the story actually didn’t grab me right away – in fact, if I’m being honest, I don’t think the story really resonated much with me at all.  While I appreciate the way the author, Colleen Oakley, wrote her characters in a way that made them feel genuine – and overall I did like the characters for the most part – I never felt truly connected with them.  I’m not sure if it has to do with where I am in my life currently or perhaps I just don’t read enough in this particular genre, but I didn’t seem to feel the emotional connection to this story that many other readers did.  I didn’t cry or feel heartbroken during the parts where I think that type of reaction would’ve been expected – instead, I was annoyed more than I was moved, mostly with the character of Mia, and later, with the direction that the story, specifically the plot, eventually took. 

Writing-wise, I didn’t have much of a problem with this one, as the writing flowed well, though I do have to say that the strongest parts of the book, for me at least, were the ones not narrated by Mia.  I enjoyed those chapters more because it gave me a chance to see those characters on their own rather than through the lens of Mia’s limited (and flawed) perspective.  I also appreciated the way those chapters – and what we learn of the characters from those chapters – eventually tied back into the plot.  Though with that said, I have to agree with some of the other readers who indicated in their reviews that they felt the second half of the book was not as strong, and the ending especially seemed a bit contrived and forced.  I think for me, what kept me reading more than anything else was curiosity and wanting to know what this whole thing with Mia dreaming about a stranger she’s never met before only to discover that stranger had been dreaming about her too, was actually about and how the author would resolve the story.

Overall, I feel this was a decent read, one I did enjoy while I was reading it, but not a story that will stay with me.  I think the best approach with this book is to go into it without any expectations or preconceived notions – instead, let the story unfold whichever way it ends up doing and see where it takes you.  In retrospect, I think I would’ve enjoyed this one more if I had taken that approach from the beginning.

Received ARC from Berkley (Penguin Publishing) via Edelweiss.

Revew: The Girls with No Names (by Serena Burdick)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Right off the bat, I have to say that I had mixed feelings about this book – which is why, as I sit down to write this review, I’m struggling a bit trying to figure out how best to begin.  In reading the summary, I thought this would be a story centered around the historical House of Mercy, which was a sanitorium of sorts that had once existed in the Manhattan area of New York back in the early 1900s.  To the public, the House of Mercy was a religious institution whose purpose was to “rescue” wayward girls from a life of vice and sin by putting them on a path of reform and redemption – in reality though, the institution was actually a “prison” where girls of various ages were enslaved and forced to work under harsh conditions as restitution for the “immoral” behavior that had gotten them committed in the first place.  The girls at these establishments were often abused and punished for any little infraction and for some, even though their stays were supposed to only be temporary, sadly did not always survive to see their day of release.  

Prior to reading this book, I had heard about these types of institutions, but did not know much about the House of Mercy specifically, so I was thinking I would be able to learn more about what went on there through the fictional story of Effie and her sister Luella.  Unfortunately, it turns out that the summary is very misleading, as only a small part of the story (I would say around 20% or so) actually took place in the House of Mercy – most of the story focused on family conflict, gender and class politics, as well as what life was like for women in New York society during the 1910s.   Narrated by 3 of the main characters – the younger Tildon sister Effie, her mother Jeanne, and one of the girls from the House of Mercy named Mable – majority of the story centered around each of the character’s backstories and, in the cases of Effie and Mable, how they ended up in the House of Mercy and later on, much of the narrative revolved around whether they would be able to escape and whether Effie would be able to see her family again.  While the characters’ backstories (especially Mable’s) were interesting for the most part and did keep me reading to the end, I was a little irked at being misled and unfortunately, this did affect my reading experience somewhat.  It also didn’t help that the story itself was the “slow-burn” type where nothing really happens until around a third of the way in when things start to pick up a bit – even then though, I had some problems with parts of the plot as well as the way some of the characters were depicted. 

In terms of the writing, it actually flowed quite well in that there was a good balance of descriptive prose and dialogue.  Despite the plot as well as direction of the story being mostly predictable and contrived,  the story kept my interest (as I mentioned earlier) and I never felt the urge to skim or set this one aside in favor of another book -- both of which I tend to do when I feel the book/story is boring -- which in and of itself says a lot about how I felt about this one.  With that said however, one area that was a bit lacking with this story was that I didn’t get a strong sense of time and place, which is critical for me when it comes to historical fiction.  Most of the historical elements that would’ve established the time period and setting for me were briefly mentioned for the most part (for example – the suffragettes and women’s marches, a brief mention near the end of what would be the start of World War I, the House of Mercy itself, etc.), to the point that I felt like majority of the story could have taken place anywhere and during any time period. 

Overall, I would say that the story definitely had potential and the writing was mostly solid, it’s just that the execution wasn’t really up to par with what I expected.  Given the premise, I expected both the story and the characters to be ones that I would continue to think about for awhile after I finished reading, but I’m sorry to say that didn’t turn out to be the case with this one -- I liked this one well enough to finish reading it, but not enough to linger on the characters (most of whom I didn’t connect with) or the story.  Basically, I’m ready to move on to something better.

Received ARC from Park Row (Random House) via Edelweiss.