Elysha Chang's debut novel A Quitter's Paradise is an interesting story about a Chinese-American woman named Eleanor who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and self-reflection after her mother dies. The narrative alternates between a past and present timeline, with the present one told from Eleanor's first person perspective, covering her adult life where she and her husband Ellis are both scientists working on their PhDs. Eleanor is prone to avoiding her feelings and often goes to great lengths to make herself small and invisible — a "skill" she cultivated as a child growing up in a household that was often devoid of warmth and tenderness. In this timeline, we are given glimpses into Eleanor's fraught relationship with her mother, but we don't learn how this tense relationship came to be until the past timeline, told in third person, where the backstory of Eleanor's parents, Rita and Jing, is told. Rita and Jing were immigrants from Taiwan, and though they were able to provide a financially stable life for Eleanor and her sister Narisa, their family dynamics were anything but harmonious. Jing was often away for work and when he was at home, he was mostly indifferent (and sometimes violent) toward his family. Rita often criticized her daughters for infractions that either didn't exist or were contradictory to the point of confusion. Narisa was a wild child who mostly did as she pleased, even if it meant hurting others in the process (especially Eleanor, whom she bullied and ridiculed relentlessly). Growing up, Eleanor learned to be quiet and obedient, immersing herself in schoolwork and reading (similar to how the ancient scholars immersed themselves in their studies) — not because she particularly enjoyed either activity, but because that was the only way she could be left alone. In this way, she could become what her mother Rita "envisioned a modern scholar to be: someone actively engaged in disappearing, in self-effacing, someone hermited within themselves… Eleanor never corrected mistakes, never offered opinions, convictions, suggestions, clarifications. Never revealed anything about what she knew or did not know, what she felt or did not feel. How had she trained herself to be so amenable? Where did she learn to nod at concepts she didn't understand? Simple. Eleanor did not really rule herself or any realm of her life. She inhabited a world that belonged always to someone else." It is this personality trait of Eleanor's that shapes much of the story in the present timeline, which ends up affecting her relationships with everyone around her.
I had serious mixed feelings toward this book, with regard to both the story arc and the characters. In terms of story arc, the first two-thirds or so was quite strong and kept me engaged, but then the last third of the story got a bit muddled and abstract, to the point that, in the end, I felt lost and was no longer sure I knew where the author was trying to go with the story. I also felt like the way the 2 alternating timelines were presented came off a bit disjointed - specifically as it pertained to the relationship between Eleanor and her mother Rita, which I was expecting to be more of a focus in the story. In the past timeline, we get to know Rita through her backstory, which plays a huge role in shaping her relationship with her daughters in their childhood years. In the present timeline however, the mother-daughter relationship wasn't explored much outside of the first few pages, which felt like a lost opportunity to me. But it could be because I preferred the past timeline over the present one, so I was more interested in how that played out.
With the characters, I was actually quite conflicted. On the one hand, I definitely resonated with Eleanor as a child, growing up in an immigrant household and the struggles that came with it, as well as the tenuous relationship with her mother that shaped who she became as an adult — much of it was familiar to me, as I had experienced similar struggles in my own life. In the present timeline however, I couldn't relate much to Eleanor and the outlandish decisions she made, many of which I thought were a bit over the top — so much so that I actually found her annoying, especially near the end of the story. I also didn't know what to make of her relationship with Ellis, who featured prominently in the present timeline, but yet as a character, was not developed much — it felt like he could've easily been cut out of the story and it wouldn't have made much difference.
Overall, I did enjoy this one, even though I felt parts of the story were uneven and the characters could've been better developed. The writing itself was quite good though, so I would definitely be interested in reading more from Elysha Chang in the future.
Received ARC from SJP Lit / Zando via NetGalley
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