My Rating: 4.5 stars
It’s not often that a book I read impacted me so much
that I was rendered virtually speechless immediately afterwards — to the point
that despite having finished this book several days ago, I had to wait to write
this review because I needed time to regroup and gather my thoughts. The reason
this book impacted me so much is because the subject matter it covered hit a
little too close to home for me, as it brought back memories from 27 years ago
and emotions that felt so real, I truly felt like I had been transported back
in time to my childhood. Back then, my family lived in a little enclave
of apartment buildings in Westchester, near its border with Inglewood in Los
Angeles. Nearby, within walking distance, was a tiny strip mall with a donut shop,
a laundromat, a small restaurant, and a Korean-owned liquor store on the very
corner — a setup similar to the neighborhoods that the main characters in the
book lived in during their youth.
The story, especially the events that took place during
the “past” timeline of 1991 and 1992, was tremendously familiar to me because
it aligned with much of what I remember experiencing growing up as an Asian
American in the Los Angeles of the 1990s. I remember what happened to
Latasha Harlins and the public outrage over the light sentence that Soon Ja Du
ended up getting; I remember the already simmering tensions between the African
American and Korean communities that were further exacerbated by the Harlins
case; I remember the Rodney King beating that took place around that time
as well as the infamous acquittal that came down a year later; and of course, I
remember the LA Riots and the devastation that took place those 6 days. I was
13 years old at the time (around the same age as one of the main characters in the
book when the story opened) and when the riots broke out, I remember most of us
were still at school, anxiously waiting for our parents to come pick us
up. Our school wasn’t close in proximity
to the riot area fortunately, however, due to the chaotic nature of things and
the fear that the rioting might spread to other areas, it was advised for all
the schools to shut down for the day. As we waited for our rides, there
was a lot of nervous chatter among our group of friends, as many of them either
had long commutes home or they would have to pass by the areas where much of
the rioting was beginning to gain traction.
Adding to those fears, we had heard that rioters had started venting out
their anger at innocent bystanders, stopping random cars and pulling people out
and beating them (a “rumor” that was confirmed later that night on the news when
we all witnessed in horror the terrifying events that unfolded at the
intersection of Florence and Normandie).
The looting and burning down of stores followed, with the devastation
spilling over to surrounding cities – news coverage showed chaotic scenes, with
the destruction hitting heaviest in South Los Angeles and Koreatown (which had
become a target due to the Latasha Harlins case). It was the worst time to be out in the streets
– in fact, it was the worst time to be anywhere other than hidden away in the
safety of our own homes with doors locked, windows barred, blinds drawn.
The experience of reading this book felt almost surreal
to me. Even though the entire story was
a fictionalized version based on past events and many of the details had been
changed, plus a majority of the timeline focused on present day (2019) and how
the various characters dealt with the aftermath of what had happened so long
ago, the memories it triggered were enough to bring the real-life events the
story was based on back to life for me.
The author Steph Cha did a great job capturing the sentiments and perspectives
of both the African American and Korean communities during that period in
history, but what floored me the most was how vividly she was able to depict
the realities of what life was like growing up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, not
just for people of color, but also for immigrants and others who were part of
the community at the time.
Ten years after the riots occurred, on the way to visit
friends, I happened to be driving through one of the areas hit hardest by the
riots and I will never forget the shock I felt seeing how much of the area
never got rebuilt. Steph Cha captured my
sentiments exactly when, in the book, she described what one of the main characters,
Shawn Matthews, saw when he was surveying the devastation that had taken place around
him right after the fictionalized riots in the story: “Wherever he went, he
saw the extent of the ruin, the cooled remnants of days of unchecked
wrath. Where there had been buildings,
there were now building frames like children’s pictures scribbled in pencil,
gray and blurred and skeletal, on the verge of disintegration. Roll-up doors defaced by graffiti and ash,
the metal warped so they’d never close again.
Rubble and trash littered the streets like fallen teeth, like dead skin,
the rot of a ravaged body.” This was actually the reality of what I saw as
well, many years later – and even now, nearly 3 decades later, some remnants of
the devastation still exists, albeit in smaller pockets.
To come across a book like this one, that captures a
history and time period and even elements of a culture that I was once so
familiar with on a personal level – THIS is one of the reasons why I read. With that said, I did struggle with the
rating on this one, wavering between 4.5 and 5 stars…in the end, I decided on
4.5 stars, mostly because I’m not sure how I feel about the story’s ending and
the way things played out. Needless to
say, this is a book I definitely recommend, though word of warning, this is not
an easy one to read, especially if you have a personal connection to parts of
the story like I did.
Received ARC from HarperCollins (Ecco) via NetGalley.
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