What a delightful read! In her newest book, author Emiko Jean brings us a poignant yet ultimately uplifting story about a woman who, after experiencing trauma and setbacks in her life, goes on a path of self-discovery that helps her to overcome her insecurities as well as better understand who she is "in real life."
Mika Suzuki's life can only be described as "a mess" — she keeps getting fired from job after job, her love life is in shambles after a bad breakup with her latest boyfriend, she has a strained relationship with her traditional Japanese parents whom she can't help but perpetually disappoint, and she lives in a messy house with a potentially cracked ceiling that belongs to her eccentric but lovable best friend Hana (who, by the way, may or may not be a hoarder). Oh and she's also broke and, as much as she hates doing it, has to repeatedly borrow money from her parents for basic daily necessities. It is at this time, when she is at the lowest point of her life, that she receives a surprising phone call that catches her completely off guard — the call is from Penny, the daughter she had placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny wants to get to know her birth mother (which is something Mika secretly yearns for as well) and so the two of them start slow, with phone calls and video calls every couple days. In her curiosity about Mika's life, Penny asks a lot of questions, but Mika isn't keen on letting her daughter know about the sorry state of her own miserable existence, so she decides to embellish the facts about her life just a little. But one lie leads to another and soon, Mika has fabricated an entire life that is opposite of the one she is actually living. When Penny tells Mika that she wants to fly to Oregon (Penny and her adoptive father Thomas live in Ohio) to meet her, Mika panics — but luckily, her devoted friends come to the rescue and help her turn the fake life she created into a reality. Will Mika be able to sustain these lies throughout the entire visit or will things eventually blow up in her face? More importantly, what will become of the newfound but fragile relationship with her daughter?
I honestly didn't expect this story to grab me as much as it did. I'm usually not tremendously keen on romances (which I erroneously thought that's what this book would be), but the more I got into the story, the more I realized that's not what the book is about at all. Sure, there is romance (and in case it matters for some, heads up that there are a few "spicy" scenes in here, though they are very brief), but the crux of the story is actually about the complexities of parent / child relationships, especially in mixed race families, which, for me, gave the story unexpected depth and meaning. In juxtaposing the various parent / child relationships within the narrative — between Mika and her parents Hiromi and Shige, between Mika and her biological daughter Penny, between Penny and her adopted parents Thomas and Caroline — Emiko Jean explores the complicated dynamics of parental love and how it not only can manifest itself in different ways, but also can be heavily impacted by culture and upbringing. This made the story relatable on so many levels, but for me specifically, what resonated most was Mika's relationship with her mother Hiromi, the nuances of which, having myself grown up in an immigrant household with traditional Asian parents, I also struggled with at some point — for example: the emotional distance caused by lack of meaningful communication between family members, the cultural expectation to keep silent about matters deemed "shameful" to the family, the pressure to be successful in both life and career in order to "repay" the sacrifices that our parents made in choosing to immigrate here, the feelings of inadequacy and never being able to live up to their expectations, etc. There's also the exploration of how that relationship impacts Mika's relationship with Penny, and the struggle with understanding better where her mother was coming from but at the same time, wanting to forge a different path with her own daughter.
In addition to parent / child relationships and love in its different manifestations, the story also explores topics such as adoption, race and identity, interracial relationships, cultural expectations vs societal conventions, etc. Even with the heavy topics however, the overall tone of the book was lighthearted and hopeful, with humor playing a significant role in the narrative. In fact, that's one of the things that stood out the most for me — how Jean was able to strike such a perfect balance throughout the story between the serious and humorous elements without verging into melodramatic (not an easy feat with these types of stories). I also loved the way the characters were rendered, especially Mika herself, who came across so realistically for me, with her insecurities and flaws and the various struggles in life that she has to deal with.
This book surprised me in a good way and I'm really glad I read it. Of course I definitely recommend this one, but with the caveat that each person's experience reading it will be different. On that note, I also wanted to share this interview that Emiko Jean did, where she talks about her inspiration for this book — it’s a very insightful read:
Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.
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