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Steer Toward Rock
"The woman I loved wasn't in love with me; the woman I married wasn't a wife to me. Ilin Cheung was my wife on paper. In deed, she belonged to Yi-Tung Szeto. In debt, I also belonged to him. He was my father, paper too."Steer Toward Rock, Fae Myenne Ng's heartbreaking novel of unrequited love, tells the story of the only bachelor butcher at the Universal Market in San Francisco. Jack Moon Szeto--that was the name he bought, the name he made his life by--serves the lonely grass widows whose absentee husbands work the farmlands in the Central Valley. A man who knows that the body is the only truth, Jack attends to more than just their weekly orders of lamb or beef.
But it is the free-spirited, American-born Joice Qwan with whom Jack falls in love. A woman whose life is guided by more than simple pain, Joice hands out towels at the Underground Bathhouse and sells tickets at the Great Star Theatre; her mother cleans corpses. Joice wants romance and she wants to escape Chinatown, but Jack knows that she is his ghost of love, better chased than caught.
It is the 1960s and while the world is on the edge of an exciting future, Jack has not one grain of choice in his life. When his paper wife arrives from China he is forced to fulfill the last part of his contract and to stand before the law with the woman who is to serve as mistress to his fake father. Jack has inherited a cruel cultural legacy. A man with no claim to the past, his only hope is to make a new story for himself, one that includes both Joice and America.
Not since Bone, Fae Myenne Ng's highly praised debut novel, has a work so eloquently revealed the complex loyalties of Chinese America. Steer Toward Rock is the story of a man who chooses love over the law, illuminating a part of U.S. history few are aware of, but one that has had echoing effects for generations.
But it is the free-spirited, American-born Joice Qwan with whom Jack falls in love. A woman whose life is guided by more than simple pain, Joice hands out towels at the Underground Bathhouse and sells tickets at the Great Star Theatre; her mother cleans corpses. Joice wants romance and she wants to escape Chinatown, but Jack knows that she is his ghost of love, better chased than caught.
It is the 1960s and while the world is on the edge of an exciting future, Jack has not one grain of choice in his life. When his paper wife arrives from China he is forced to fulfill the last part of his contract and to stand before the law with the woman who is to serve as mistress to his fake father. Jack has inherited a cruel cultural legacy. A man with no claim to the past, his only hope is to make a new story for himself, one that includes both Joice and America.
Not since Bone, Fae Myenne Ng's highly praised debut novel, has a work so eloquently revealed the complex loyalties of Chinese America. Steer Toward Rock is the story of a man who chooses love over the law, illuminating a part of U.S. history few are aware of, but one that has had echoing effects for generations.
255 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2008
8 people are currently reading
404 people want to read
About the author
Fae Myenne Ng
10 books71 followersFae Myenne Ng (born December 2, 1956 in San Francisco) is an American novelist, and short story writer.
She is a first-generation Chinese American author whose debut novel Bone told the story of three Chinese American daughters growing up in her real childhood hometown of San Francisco Chinatown. Her work has received support from the American Academy of Arts & Letters' Rome Prize, the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and The Radcliffe Institute. She held residencies at Yaddo, McDowell, and the Djerassi Foundation.
She is the daughter of seamstress and a laborer, who immigrated from Guangzhou, China. She attended the University of California-Berkeley, and received her M.F.A. at Columbia University. Ng has supported herself by working as a waitress and at other temporary jobs.
Her short stories have appeared in the American Voice, Calys, City Lights Review, Crescent Review, Harper's. She currently teaches at UC Berkeley.
(from Wikipedia)
She is a first-generation Chinese American author whose debut novel Bone told the story of three Chinese American daughters growing up in her real childhood hometown of San Francisco Chinatown. Her work has received support from the American Academy of Arts & Letters' Rome Prize, the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and The Radcliffe Institute. She held residencies at Yaddo, McDowell, and the Djerassi Foundation.
She is the daughter of seamstress and a laborer, who immigrated from Guangzhou, China. She attended the University of California-Berkeley, and received her M.F.A. at Columbia University. Ng has supported herself by working as a waitress and at other temporary jobs.
Her short stories have appeared in the American Voice, Calys, City Lights Review, Crescent Review, Harper's. She currently teaches at UC Berkeley.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
October 27, 2019
The immigrant experience, race, social class, identity. Yep, all themes deeply explored here, just simply how the "other" is rationalized and seen, and how people were seen during the "red scare." It is about the quota put on Chinese immigration, and how the past will probably repeat itself. However it is more about family, and how a child's identity can be shaped when a parent refuses to share their story with their children.
This book is just about too many things for me to pin-point them all, so honestly, read it, annotate it, apply it, and enjoy it.
This book is just about too many things for me to pin-point them all, so honestly, read it, annotate it, apply it, and enjoy it.
September 15, 2008
Woa. I feel so bad not liking this book. I loved Bone, Ng's last book. It was written 15 years ago, I read it maybe 4 years back and just loved it. It was so well written, such a strong voice. Really strong. Such a different San Francisco than Maupin or Tan described. Just really good. In fact, if you haven't read Bone, go read it now.
And it's not like "Steer Toward Rock" was written badly. Its structure was interesting and its subject matter certainly worthy of anyone's time. But it just didn't come together. I'm not sure Ng knew what she wanted to say with this book, and even if so, I didn't get it.
I really hope this was just a mis-step because Bone was SO good. And I hope I get to find out in a slightly shorter span of time.
And it's not like "Steer Toward Rock" was written badly. Its structure was interesting and its subject matter certainly worthy of anyone's time. But it just didn't come together. I'm not sure Ng knew what she wanted to say with this book, and even if so, I didn't get it.
I really hope this was just a mis-step because Bone was SO good. And I hope I get to find out in a slightly shorter span of time.
February 8, 2015
This is a beautiful little book that I find difficult to describe. It tells the story of Jack Moon Szeto, a Chinese immigrant from a small village, who was sold to a well-off family and sent to America as the "son" of Yi-Tung Gold Szeto, a Chinese-American US citizen. He is forced to marry Gold Szeto's second wife, so that she can be brought over to America and give Gold Szeto a son. Unfortunately, Jack falls in love with another Chinese immigrant, the free spirited Joice. After Joice becomes pregnant, Jack tries to throw off his debt to his fake father by confessing to the INS's Chinese Confession Program so that he can marry Joice. Gold Szeto is deported, but Joice is not interested in marriage. Jack remains married to his false wife, who ends up being more of a true companion to him than Joice ever was. With his false wife's help he raises his daughter by Joice, Veda, and finds comfort in his relationship with his daughter. The final portion of the book switches to Veda's point of view, and we see a different take on the immigrant story, coming from a second generation American. Feeling more American than Chinese, she refuses to have children or live by Chinese customs. A trip to visit her father's village leaves her feeling even more distant from her heritage, and she returns determined to finally make her father a US citizen.
This is one instance in which I really enjoyed the author's poetic prose. Although it wasn't a story I particularly related to, not coming from an immigrant family myself, I found the sparse writing style very moving. Each phrase is so carefully crafted that one sentence can tell an entire story. Apart from being an immigrant story, it is also a story of a father and a daughter and how it can be hard to communicate between different generations. It is also the story of how our past shapes our future, and even the future of our children. I definitely recommend it.
This is one instance in which I really enjoyed the author's poetic prose. Although it wasn't a story I particularly related to, not coming from an immigrant family myself, I found the sparse writing style very moving. Each phrase is so carefully crafted that one sentence can tell an entire story. Apart from being an immigrant story, it is also a story of a father and a daughter and how it can be hard to communicate between different generations. It is also the story of how our past shapes our future, and even the future of our children. I definitely recommend it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2010
Wanted to like this book, as it takes on an interesting aspect of us history - paper families and chinese immigration policies of the u.s. The language that some may deem poetic and metaphorical (and i do love my metaphors!) kept me from entering fully into the story and feeling for the characters or getting an idea really of who these characters were. Dates are a little unclear even though it's relatively easy to figure out from who is speaking but then dialogue from the younger generation became jarring because it's neither here nor there and ends up reading weirdly to me ("Being in China only made me feel more resolute about not reversing my tubal ligation.") This kind of 'historical' fiction novel about Asian/Asian immigrant characters does bring up the question for me about how language style should or can be treated. Eh my thoughts are a little too tangled still....
June 26, 2025
This book felt like translated Chinese poetry, translated in the sense of Cantonese bachelors “pulling a big gun” in Chinatown, of an immigrant’s story implanted in SF, and in the sense of a daughter trying to protect him. I felt like I was living in the dad’s head, and it made me think a bit more. The daughter’s perspective was a bit more distanced, and I couldn’t understand what happened between her childhood and growing up that led her to create the ending she did. Although very difficult, I appreciated that this book made me think about my own relationships in a deeper way.
Jack’s heart swam back to the memory of his mother taking him across the river. He remembered skipping his hand into her, hands soft as river water and as cool.
Water rushed over rock, my current of life swelled and I carried on.
Telling can be a detour. Telling does not necessarily invite completion. No story matters till it is finished and the only stories that need telling are the ones whose endings do not fulfill us. I wanted to tell her, enlightenment was a flame, one only needed a pinch of light to dream by.
Jack’s heart swam back to the memory of his mother taking him across the river. He remembered skipping his hand into her, hands soft as river water and as cool.
Water rushed over rock, my current of life swelled and I carried on.
Telling can be a detour. Telling does not necessarily invite completion. No story matters till it is finished and the only stories that need telling are the ones whose endings do not fulfill us. I wanted to tell her, enlightenment was a flame, one only needed a pinch of light to dream by.
Read
March 12, 2024a book about burying stories (in their not telling and retelling), only for them to change hands and shapes, retold in their being relived
“telling can be a detour. telling does not necessarily invite completion”
“let her find her way through the story so that it frees her”
i have so much gratitude for ng - who writes about this old world that i do not know so well but through her writing can just make out
“telling can be a detour. telling does not necessarily invite completion”
“let her find her way through the story so that it frees her”
i have so much gratitude for ng - who writes about this old world that i do not know so well but through her writing can just make out
May 7, 2018
Its a wonderfully written book about Chinese immigrants in America in the 60s.
The writing is lyrical, the story poignant and quirky about family and sacrifice. Loved it.
The writing is lyrical, the story poignant and quirky about family and sacrifice. Loved it.
November 26, 2021
i’ll be honest i read about half of this for work and stopped
March 10, 2009
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. It started out really strong - how could it not, with an opening line like “The woman I loved wasn’t in love with me; the woman I married wasn’t a wife to me.”
This had all the trappings of one of Zhang Yimou's mid-90's melodramas: star-crossed lovers, literary pretensions, a little bit of criminal intrigue as befits the 1960's San Francisco underworld. But it abandoned that about a third of the way through and switched to a macro-time minor-key Joy Luck Club. Which isn't to belittle Amy Tan, but this was something of a bait-and-switch as far as I was concerned.
This had all the trappings of one of Zhang Yimou's mid-90's melodramas: star-crossed lovers, literary pretensions, a little bit of criminal intrigue as befits the 1960's San Francisco underworld. But it abandoned that about a third of the way through and switched to a macro-time minor-key Joy Luck Club. Which isn't to belittle Amy Tan, but this was something of a bait-and-switch as far as I was concerned.
August 17, 2008
No one writes of Chinese San Francisco as nakedly as Fae Myenne Ng. The sorrow present in this story is of trampled hope, lost life, lost lives, revenge, and the many faces of love.
It is a book to be read in sips...savoring Ng's poetry before dashing into the next mini-chapter allowed me mentally back on a bus hurtling down Geary to look at now-elderly immigrants with respect and awe anew.
It is a book to be read in sips...savoring Ng's poetry before dashing into the next mini-chapter allowed me mentally back on a bus hurtling down Geary to look at now-elderly immigrants with respect and awe anew.
May 28, 2015
I learned a lot about immigration scams and bad people and trapped people. I think it was at about page 70 when I decided that I didn't like anyone enough to continue reading. As reviewer Jans said, It is difficult to get a pulse on any of the characters. Jans also said, "
Ng is a talented writer, but this plot fails to come to life."
Ng is a talented writer, but this plot fails to come to life."
December 8, 2014
A lukewarm novel about Chinese immigrants and the Confession Program. Primarily told from one point of view until the end, the story didn't grab me and pull me in the same way Ng's debut novel, BONE, did.
February 10, 2009
learned about the illegal alien in SF Chinatown(1950's),a universal immigrant story.
February 15, 2025
A love story wrapped around and through a series of tragedies, small delicious life joys, and the kind of emotional recognitions that can only occur over generations of intimacy. A young Chinese boy is sold by his mother to a man who will be his paper father in San Francisco. The boy comes to the US to become Jack Moon Szeto, his son and betrothed husband to his paper father's second wife who awaits her turn to arrive in the US. The FBI is on the hunt for these paper families, and pressures families to confess, families which eventually break apart and end up deported to the Motherland, far from their American plans and obligations. Jack is a butcher, and a hard worker, a lover who is enticing to many women but who is infatuated with a woman who is always in motion like a ghost. Only after his daughter Veda travels as an adult to China to understand her father's origins does Veda realize the kinds of love her devoted and stubborn father has expressed in his lifetime, and the capacities for love and forgiveness that she might have inside.
May 3, 2018
The first 50pages were interesting and after that I felt the storyline..plot somehow very boring and long winded. I had to practically force myself to continue for another 70pages or so.Eventually ,I just gave up and stopped reading the book. The novel revolves around an Asian immigrant life in The western world and the trials and tribulations he has to overcome in a foreign land.It also studies the different phases in multifaced relationships across about 20years or so.Overall,it was a simple story but it did not hold my interest level or kept me intrigued at all.
March 23, 2018
The jacket for this book has mega-praise on the back from highly regarded authors. Given that, I would have expected a more moving and poigniant novel. It was ok, even somewhat interesting at times, but never stood out much and I didn't really connect with it.
It touches on some interesting themes and perspectives of the first and second generation immigrant experience, but it remains just a little too aloof to really dig into those themes.
Shhhhrrrugggg.
It touches on some interesting themes and perspectives of the first and second generation immigrant experience, but it remains just a little too aloof to really dig into those themes.
Shhhhrrrugggg.
May 27, 2017
Steer Toward Rock was written in a very poetic and beautiful style. It tells the story of a paper son living in America, and the trials that he had to undergo. It is a story of love, romantically unrequited, and familial. An artistic depiction of American-Chinese culture, it lacked only in the ending, which was somewhat disjointed and unsatisfying. All in all a good read.
July 4, 2017
This story gave great insight into the Chinese American culture and how it has evolved over the years. I found it somewhat difficult to get into because of the rather choppiness of the language, but it was well worth reading. I can only imagine how much people of non-american cultures adapted to survive/
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2019
Beautifully written. For some reason the jacket claims it's a book about unrequited love, but it's really about how people can carry within them two clashing cultures, and rejection from both. And how a story draws from the previous generation, and continues to the next. It's unashamedly complex and bittersweet. Five outta frickin five <3
May 28, 2019
A really good book about the Chinese American experience in San Francisco. This book highlights the culture clash of the a changing America in the 1960s with the wave of rural Chinese immigrants and their children,
June 8, 2023
These are stories of the complexities of Chinese immigration into San Francisco in the early 20th century, all new and fascinating to this reader. It would have been a more comprehensible book if the author had chosen to write from the third-person perspective throughout.
October 28, 2022
Buon libro sul tema dell'immigrazione e dell'integrazione, l'ho trovato però scritto con uno stile un po' dispersivo.
November 21, 2023
A short but endearing novel that shows we adjust to love as we adjust to life.
June 6, 2024
Ng is best known for Bone, which was the first book I read after I finished my dissertation, which blew my mind.This novel, which does not reach the heights of the debut, is a lyrical examination of Chinese immigration and the attempt of an American daughter to connect with her immigrant father.
January 17, 2009
"Trust Rock...Break fear upon rock........Go toward fear. Trust fear. Steer toward rock."
These are the words Jack Moon Szeto's Chinese mother taught him before he left China as an indentured servant to a Chinese man living illegally in San Francisco. Jack enters San Francisco in 1952, dishonestly claiming to be the son of Yi-Tung aka Gold Szeto, an illegally registered U.S. citizen and a criminal. Jack must pay Szeto by working for two years and marrying a stranger. Employed as a butcher, Jack is popular with the ladies, but chooses Joice Qwan as his lover.
Because of the bargain made with Gold Szeto, Jack has no choices in his life. When his false wife arrives from China he is forced to fulfill his pledge and to marry the woman who is to serve as mistress to his false father. Joice becomes pregnant, but refuses to marry Jack. Undeterred, Jack attempts to cancel his contract with Szeto by entering the INS's Chinese Confession Program to admit his false identity. The plan backfires. Gold Szeto is deported, but Jack does not earn citizenship or Joice's hand in marriage.
Although this book was highly rated and reviewed, I was disappointed. The characters are static and undeveloped. The reader is given no insight to the characters' emotions. The plot plows steadily forward, reporting facts and events without dynamics or excitement.
Jack is very pragmatic, accepting his life and his fate without revealing his feelings or thoughts. Joice is elusive, selfish and disagreeable. It is difficult to get a pulse on any of the characters. More dialogue, introspection and interaction would develop the characters' personalities and flesh them into real people. The story is erratic and depressing.
Fae Myenne Ng's writing is descriptive and poetic. She paints a vivid picture of the mid-20th century Chinese-American community in San Francisco. The reader learns about Chinese traditions and superstitions. There is a liberal sprinkling of words of wisdom. Ng is a talented writer, but this plot fails to come to life. Her literary voice may be better expressed in poetry.
My Grade C
Author: Fae Myenne Ng
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Hyperion (May 13, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0786860979
ISBN-13: 978-0786860975
I was very disappointed in this book and cannot recommend it.
These are the words Jack Moon Szeto's Chinese mother taught him before he left China as an indentured servant to a Chinese man living illegally in San Francisco. Jack enters San Francisco in 1952, dishonestly claiming to be the son of Yi-Tung aka Gold Szeto, an illegally registered U.S. citizen and a criminal. Jack must pay Szeto by working for two years and marrying a stranger. Employed as a butcher, Jack is popular with the ladies, but chooses Joice Qwan as his lover.
Because of the bargain made with Gold Szeto, Jack has no choices in his life. When his false wife arrives from China he is forced to fulfill his pledge and to marry the woman who is to serve as mistress to his false father. Joice becomes pregnant, but refuses to marry Jack. Undeterred, Jack attempts to cancel his contract with Szeto by entering the INS's Chinese Confession Program to admit his false identity. The plan backfires. Gold Szeto is deported, but Jack does not earn citizenship or Joice's hand in marriage.
Although this book was highly rated and reviewed, I was disappointed. The characters are static and undeveloped. The reader is given no insight to the characters' emotions. The plot plows steadily forward, reporting facts and events without dynamics or excitement.
Jack is very pragmatic, accepting his life and his fate without revealing his feelings or thoughts. Joice is elusive, selfish and disagreeable. It is difficult to get a pulse on any of the characters. More dialogue, introspection and interaction would develop the characters' personalities and flesh them into real people. The story is erratic and depressing.
Fae Myenne Ng's writing is descriptive and poetic. She paints a vivid picture of the mid-20th century Chinese-American community in San Francisco. The reader learns about Chinese traditions and superstitions. There is a liberal sprinkling of words of wisdom. Ng is a talented writer, but this plot fails to come to life. Her literary voice may be better expressed in poetry.
My Grade C
Author: Fae Myenne Ng
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Hyperion (May 13, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0786860979
ISBN-13: 978-0786860975
I was very disappointed in this book and cannot recommend it.
March 9, 2009
This book earns a four-star from me not because of its story, but rather the author's writing style. It's very poetic and simple, but yet so beautiful. Conversations are short and simple, and without the use of quotation marks. I find the style very refreshing. I especially like how the book ends, with the daughter being the narrator. It gives me the impression of a new era... a new chapter.
The story in itself is a sad story. A boy, Jack Moon Szeto, was sold at the age of five to another family. He felt abandoned and wants to be loved and belonged. He lost his love to Joice, a woman who he described as the Bamboo Woman. "Bamboo women love to drink wine, they have a hollow inner stem that makes them blow this way and that" (49). He also said that "Joice was my ghost of love, better chased than caught" (17). All he wanted was to feel belonged, but I think that he had suffered so much to know how to make things right again. That was why he couldn't chose a "legal" name when asked by the INS officer. All he had were lies... which also made up who he was.
"As when my mother took me across the river and handed me over to a new home, I stood before a new road. I want to free my daughter of any obligation to my history. Whatever I endured is not hers to ponder; how I survived is not hers to wonder; she will come upon enough heartbreak in her own life" (191).
"I knew the truth was what he didn't tell. His stories were always about how he was the favored and pursued and preferred. I finally figured, No one told him he was loved, so he had to keep telling it to himself" (196).
Two more writings that I enjoyed (there were more, but I couldn't jot all of them down):
"My lot was as bald. Yet I wanted to be like the rooster, common as salt, but glorious with his five virtues. The rooster wears a crown, he has dignity. His spurs are sharp; he is a hero. He is brave; he faces his foe. He is generous and communicates when he finds food. A rooster is trustworthy; he tells perfect time" (9).
"On the dark cold avenue, I felt like a cut man, hoodwinked by my own fear. The metal taps of my shoes echoed on the empty avenue, one click hopeful, then next click hollow" (40).
The story in itself is a sad story. A boy, Jack Moon Szeto, was sold at the age of five to another family. He felt abandoned and wants to be loved and belonged. He lost his love to Joice, a woman who he described as the Bamboo Woman. "Bamboo women love to drink wine, they have a hollow inner stem that makes them blow this way and that" (49). He also said that "Joice was my ghost of love, better chased than caught" (17). All he wanted was to feel belonged, but I think that he had suffered so much to know how to make things right again. That was why he couldn't chose a "legal" name when asked by the INS officer. All he had were lies... which also made up who he was.
"As when my mother took me across the river and handed me over to a new home, I stood before a new road. I want to free my daughter of any obligation to my history. Whatever I endured is not hers to ponder; how I survived is not hers to wonder; she will come upon enough heartbreak in her own life" (191).
"I knew the truth was what he didn't tell. His stories were always about how he was the favored and pursued and preferred. I finally figured, No one told him he was loved, so he had to keep telling it to himself" (196).
Two more writings that I enjoyed (there were more, but I couldn't jot all of them down):
"My lot was as bald. Yet I wanted to be like the rooster, common as salt, but glorious with his five virtues. The rooster wears a crown, he has dignity. His spurs are sharp; he is a hero. He is brave; he faces his foe. He is generous and communicates when he finds food. A rooster is trustworthy; he tells perfect time" (9).
"On the dark cold avenue, I felt like a cut man, hoodwinked by my own fear. The metal taps of my shoes echoed on the empty avenue, one click hopeful, then next click hollow" (40).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2015
(more to come)
A few of my favorite quotes:
The night was still. She stood so close, I felt her liquid warmth.
I’m not in love, she said. What did she mean? I had no idea. I understood love to be a shared fate, a feeling grown from seed, a flower eternally beautiful. I had no idea what she meant. When she talked about being surrendered in feeling, it sounded as unpleasant as being in a wind canyon. So I got up and walked to the last bench and kicked at it till it knocked over. Then I just stood there, eating wind, upset at her, upset at myself, lost in a storm of impossibilities.
Eating was a signature of silence. The unspoken was the home of truth. This was the truth they ate and the truth they were committed to speak.
I knew Louie was talking about himself. Talking to me was only a way to hear his own answers. Brother, I said, Don’t borrow my problems as a platform to bemoan yours!
I didn’t bother asking how he found her because I knew how. Talk. Everything was by talk. Talk was the highway through history. Talk conquered time. Talk was blood through eternity.
My father’s story was never complete in America, that’s why I could never let it go. But in China, his story was so common it wasn’t even worth telling. Only in China, could I discover that I had mislabeled his pain for my own shame.
A few of my favorite quotes:
The night was still. She stood so close, I felt her liquid warmth.
I’m not in love, she said. What did she mean? I had no idea. I understood love to be a shared fate, a feeling grown from seed, a flower eternally beautiful. I had no idea what she meant. When she talked about being surrendered in feeling, it sounded as unpleasant as being in a wind canyon. So I got up and walked to the last bench and kicked at it till it knocked over. Then I just stood there, eating wind, upset at her, upset at myself, lost in a storm of impossibilities.
Eating was a signature of silence. The unspoken was the home of truth. This was the truth they ate and the truth they were committed to speak.
I knew Louie was talking about himself. Talking to me was only a way to hear his own answers. Brother, I said, Don’t borrow my problems as a platform to bemoan yours!
I didn’t bother asking how he found her because I knew how. Talk. Everything was by talk. Talk was the highway through history. Talk conquered time. Talk was blood through eternity.
My father’s story was never complete in America, that’s why I could never let it go. But in China, his story was so common it wasn’t even worth telling. Only in China, could I discover that I had mislabeled his pain for my own shame.
August 14, 2016
I used this book, Ng's second novel, for my sabbatical project which investigates the role place plays in selected literature set in California. Ng brought me into San Francisco Chinatown with a whole new set of eyes. She also taught me so much about the Chinese Exclusion Act and "paper" sons. In this novel she explores the complicated relationship an American-born daughter can have with her Chinese father, as well as the power of resilience required to make a home in a foreign land. Ng's writing is poetic in places, and aside from an odd plot point toward the end, her novel is beautifully arranged and crafted.
February 14, 2009
One of the reviews on the dust jacket compared the author's writing to bebop jazz, so I shouldn't have been surprised that I was not a huge fan. I do tend to like things with more words! It was a little too much like poetry for my tastes. The history behind the story - that of Chinese immigrants in the early-mid 20th century - was interesting, and some of what the book has to say about families, the relationships between parents and children, and how each generation deals with that which came before, struck a chord. And of course, I cried at the end - but I cry at everything, so...
June 19, 2011
Ng is a brilliantly poetic writer who manages to weave myth and excruciatingly detailed narrative seamlessly. This isn't quite as clear and easy to follow as Bone, which in some ways makes it an even more complex novel. I'm definitely going to have to re-read it to get all the layers of narratives that Ng interweaves in this one. She also plays with an untraditional structure, switching protagonists, which adds to the feeling that all the characters are connected to one another and a part of a larger myth and structure.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews