Repeat After Me

by Rachel DeWoskin

A novel of love and loss in between languages

Aysha, a twenty-two-year-old New Yorker, is beginning to put the pieces of her life back in place after a nervous breakdown. Teaching an adult education class, she meets a young Chinese student named Da Ge - tortured, charismatic and just as unstable as she is - who flips her world upside-down once again.

In a love story that spans decades and continents, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to 9/11, New York City's Upper West Side to the terraced mountains of South China, Repeat After Me is a perceptive, funny and tragic tale of clashing cultures and troubled histories.

About the author

Author, actress and award-winning poet Rachel DeWoskin was born in Michigan, USA. In 1994, she moved to Beijing, taking a starring role in a hugely successful Chinese soap opera. Her acclaimed first book, Foreign Babes in Beijing, a memoir of her time in China, was published by Granta and has been translated into five languages. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Genres: Fiction, China, Contemporary, Romance

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Rachel DeWoskin is the author of Foreign Babes in Beijing, a memoir about her inadvertent notoriety as the star of a Chinese soap opera, and a novel, Repeat After Me. She lives in New York City and Beijing and is at work on her fourth book, Statutory.

Reviews

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know how this book ended up on my shelf but I really enjoyed it. There were a few grammatical errors or missing words that bothered me but the majority of the book was very well written.
This was a tough read at times and spoke a lot to mental health and how much of a support system we sometimes need. It really reminded me to check in with my family and friends and make sure that they know they are loved.
Because of the back and forth between modern day and 1990 you knew that something terrible was coming but I did not expect the graphic was of the death when it came. Not only the death itself and the image created for it but also the description of how Ayesha reacted from her friends point of view.
Although very sad and a tale of “I wish I had just said..” there seems to be a lovely outcome in the lives of Ayesha and her daughter in China, embarrassing the culture of the one they loved and lost and reuniting family.

[Kayleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

if i could tell you the genre of this book i would, but i honestly have no idea.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew that Rachel de Woskin can write. I'd read and loved her 'Foreign Babes in Beijing' many years ago and I recognised the name when I saw 'Repeat After Me' in a charity shop or on a book stall. I forget exactly where I picked it up but I'm very glad I did. This book is so beautiful, so deeply steeped in emotion and so moving that I almost instantly want to go out and buy 'spare' copies to hand around my friends. And this is pretty weird because I'm not that 'into' books set in China. Indian sub-continent, Middle East, maybe North Africa is much more my stamping ground for international reading. But for a book by R de W, I'll make an exception and I'm really pleased that I did.

The book is a very moving tragedy but one that's delivered in such a way that even the losses are sweet and viewed in a positive light. Jewish-American Aysha is teaching English to foreigners in a New York college, taking time out from her studies after a breakdown. She falls oddly in love with one of her students, the enigmatic and troubled Da Ge, a young man torn between his desire to rebel and his anger at missing the biggest opportunity to be a dissident in many years. The two orbit each other, drawn inexorably together by weird forces of gravity whilst never being entirely sure how each feels about their partner.

We follow Aysha in her relationship with Da Ge in New York and later as a single mother in Beijing with her beautiful daughter, Julia Too. We know that Da Ge is no longer with her, but we have to wait until the book is about 80% done before we know why. The whole time the enigma of her daughter's missing father hovers over the stories until eventually all is revealed and we realise that Da Ge didn't just love Aysha, but maybe he loved her a bit TOO much.

The people in this book make you want to reach into the pages and hug them. Aysha's friends, her student-friend Xiao Wang and her grandmother, Aysha's own family, and the wonderfully generous Old Chen are all characters you want to take home and make your own.

You will learn things you've probably not expected about China and I'd say you can trust de Woskin to have got them right. You'll learn about language, about dislocation, and perhaps most importantly, about learning to see the beauty in what's lost rather than just aching for what's gone.

I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did and it's going to get my very first 5 star rating of 2019. Believe me when I say that I don't hand them out like confetti.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really drawn into this story of a woman teaching ESL (post emotional breakdown) and her relationship with one of her students, a Chinese political dissident living in NY. Well written story about how people communicate, miscommunicate, hide, reveal, misunderstand, and understand in their relationships with themselves and others. In DeWoskin's novel, the human heart is fragile yet resilient.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not gone looking for this book, nor was it an author I knew. However, the book didn't exactly beckon me from the shelf where I was looking for a book by another author. More like it threw a shoe at my head to get my attention.

Well written, well paced, interesting planning and layout of a debut novel. There were so many aspects of this novel that I found intriguing: the merging of cultures, learning another language to actually speak, not just as an academic exercise, immigration, Tienanmen square, love, grief, loss, mental instability, family.

At its root, this is the story of two individuals who meet and interact briefly, and that interaction changes their lives completely. Made me think of that butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil setting off a tornado in Texas.

Equally fascinating was the blurb about the author on the inside jacket cover:

Rachel De Woskin was educated at Columbia and Boston University. In 1994, she moved to Beijing, where she worked in public relations before taking a starring role in a hugely successful Chinese soap opera, Her acclaimed memoir, Foreign Babes in Beijing has been published in five languages and is currently being developed as a feature film. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.

One to watch.

[Christel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Repeat After Me and not just because I speak Chinese, studied in China in the late 90’s, and seriously adored Foreign Babes in Beijing. I love it because DeWoskin shows so much restraint in her writing and has such a deep respect for her characters. This book crosses cultures, an ocean, and most importantly relationships. It speaks to the human condition and how we all struggle to understand our loved ones on a deep and intimate level and yet always seem to come up short. Repeat After Me is the kind of book where the characters truly come alive. I keep expecting to run into Aysha on the streets of New York. I also find myself wondering how a certain bilingual character (don’t want to spoil anything here) is getting along in China and what the future holds for her. You pretty much know how this book is going to end from the very beginning, but the author’s attention to detail and your involvement with the characters keeps you reading---even through the late night hours.

[Deborah L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Chinese and American interactions, relationships, love and loss. A fragile and sympathetic cross-culture romance that leads to tragedy and a new life. DeWoskin shifts the story back and forth between the past and the present leaving us eager to resolve events. A worthy story with a peek into modern day China.

[Alice Yong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it’s me who doesn’t understand the author’s intent on writing this obscure book. It’s a weirdly sad and tragic tale about an American teacher falling for her Chinese student. The consequences of their relationship are rather predictable except for one part which I shall not reveal. Not a story for the depressed.

[Liz F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the story was different, interesting enough to me that I finished it. This would not be everyone's cup of tea though.
I did think certain parts were a bit ridiculous, though perhaps they were meant to seem that way, such as how the two main characters end up and stay in a relationship for most of the book.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very well written. However, I really didn't like most of the characters. I loved some of them, like Xiao Wang, but I didn't like Da Ge or Aysha. Obviously I finished the book, so I'll give it 2 stars, but I wouldn't read it again.

[DBlodgett]

Different. Looks at the main character's attraction to the Chinese student. You never quite knew what direction the novel would take. I enjoyed it but was glad to finish it. The writing is very good.

[Growlcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story about two damaged people who meet and make a connection, despite cultural differences. Not a happy story, but not a sad one either.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Stephanie Clapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

[Elevate Difference · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel DeWoskin’s debut novel, Repeat After Me, is a cultural love story between two people whose lives briefly intertwine. Afterwards, they are never the same again. The story follows the relationship between a young neurotic ESL teacher in Manhattan, Aysha Silvermintz, and her student, Da Ge, a mysterious, silent, Chinese national who comes to the U.S. just after the Tienanmen Square uprisings.

Whatever they may lack in communication skills, they compensate for in emotional understanding. Both come from difficult families and have personal baggage to deal with. The day Da Ge walks into Aysha's classroom, Aysha begins to fall in love with him. After they spend time together, Da Ge abruptly asks Aysha to marry him so he can obtain his U.S. citizenship. When Aysha becomes pregnant, she does not tell Da Ge right away because she is not sure how he will react. Sometimes, he is distant from her, while other times, he is emotionally close. He also spends days away from the apartment without telling her where has been and she does not question him. He only says he has ‘business.’

Da Ge married her for citizenship. But, Aysha married him for more. She married for love and his ideals. The tension of what this arrangement entailed constantly lingered in their interactions. Then, one day Da Ge takes off again and after a few days, Aysha finally goes looking for him. She finds that he has committed suicide. To make sense of his life and death, she moves to China to deliver and raise her child.

DeWoskin writes her novel in a multicultural narrative which immediately captivates a reader’s attention. Her writing is emotional, graceful, and provocative filled with beautiful, sometimes painful images. But her story is always focused on the human spirit. The characters she portrays are seekers trying to find answers in the world, trying to follow a path, and find peace. The torment in Da Ge was too great. He was a child of Tiananmen Square. His continuous teachings to Aysha of China, both of its past and present, illustrate his internal struggle of wanting a democracy in China. The physical bruises and scars are manifestations of his fight with the powers that be. His willingness to learn English and his inability to survive in new culture surface a wounded soul. Aysha needed to go to China to discover a peace for herself. She had to now practice Da Ge’s teachings. After years of living alone, she now would become a nurturer to her child. She wanted to be as close as possible to Da Ge’s spirit as possible with all the tastes, smells, culture, and reminders. This would be her salvation.

DeWoskin’s novel is character-driven and sophisticated, but does not lack in plot. She vividly describes her characters' moods, expressions, habits, and desires without giving too much away. Readers will not get bored. She gives her readers enough information so they will care about her characters. She engages them to read on. This is a rare talent. The story is also one which is bittersweet, and is told with raw honesty.

Review by Mona Lisa Safai

[L.R. Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Background:

I devoured this book in one sitting when I was getting over an illness. It was the perfect book for it. Rachel DeWoskin moved to Beijing after studying at Columbia University and worked in PR before starring in a popular Chinese soap opera. Her years of experience in Chinese culture served her extremely well in this novel.

Synopsis:

Novel description from BookList: "Cultures don’t so much collide as coalesce in DeWoskin’s sparkling debut novel, which follows the relationship of two people with more in common than their backgrounds would suggest. Aysha Silvermintz is a marginally neurotic, sublimely needy young instructor of English to immigrants in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Her student Da Ge is an intriguingly taciturn, softly menacing Chinese national who came to the U.S. in the wake of the Tiananmen Square uprisings. What they lack in fluid communication skills they more than make up for in shared emotional fragility, born of family tragedies and personal failures. Aysha falls instantly and secretly in love with Da Ge, long before he bluntly asks her to marry him so he can become a U.S. citizen.Determined to understand what plagued this tortured, enigmatic man, Aysha moves to China, where she’ll raise the daughter he never knew. Infusing her multicultural narrative with vibrant observations that glitter with laser-intense acuity, DeWoskin demonstrates a smart, sophisticated literary agility.

Musings:

I was writing a synopsis, but BookList did a wonderful job summing up the main points of the novel, though I deleted the sentence that gives away the heavily foreshadowed ending. Repeat After Me is nicely written and has beautiful, moving moments as well as adorably funny moments with the students fledgeling English. It shows the lives of immigrants in the late eighties of New York and the difficulties they face trying to be American. I learned a lot about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which I was rather woefully ignorant of before. DeWoskin has wonderful descriptions of people and at the end of the novel, though it ends on a positive note, I sniffled. Characters are fairly complicated and I enjoyed the voice of Aysha and her story.

Recommendation:

This novel would appeal to people of a variety of age groups and anyone interested in different cultures and the struggles of immigration and being an expatriate. It's rare I have the attention span to read a book in one sitting these days, and so this is definitely recommended to someone who is ill and needs to escape for a few hours. I liked her writing style enough that I plan to pick up her memoir, Foreign Babes in Beijing.

[Betsy Magdaleno]

I would recommend this book to all the native people that don’t speak English as their first language. My favorite character in the book was Aysha because she is a lot like me. One she can never make up her mind and two she also likes Asian people. She also likes to go and tell her best friend everything and all of her problems that she has. My least favorite character is Da Ge I did not like him because he was a really rude person and he does not care how other people feel. The author wrote this book because she remembered that she was once going to do a Japanese opera show so she decided to do a book about Japanese people coming to America. The portion that most captivated my attention was on the summary that the book has because it said something about Asian people, and I like to hang out with a lot of Asian people. What kept me reading this book were the words that the author mentioned and those words were: Asia, Japanese, and other words that are alike to these words. I was able to predict the ending of the book because it gave me a lot of clues about what was going to happen. If this book was made into movie, I would choose a lot of my friends to play the characters because the book has a lot of native people and many of my friends are native speakers. The emotions that this book made me feel were sadness because Aysha was not able to tell the guy that she liked him, and happiness. My favorite line from the book was “Maybe Da Ge knew more than I did about what would happen to us.”

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving, sparkling book. Maybe it's because I know the author, and could hear her voice in the book, but I was deeply moved by it. Her text has genuine, searing insight and the combination of multiple cultures and generations is beautiful. It also got me interested in learning more about Chinese culture, and Tang poetry.

Anyone who has ever lived abroad, or even known someone from a very different culture, can especially appreciate many things about this book, aside from the pure plot points. One of my favorite humorous parts is when the main character doesn't know the word for "doorknob" in Chinese, because it reminds me of trying to buy a hole puncher when I lived in Paris. I ended up asking the man at the stationery store for "the thing that makes the holes in the paper"!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and it was interesting how she went back and forth between New York and Beijing. Ithought some of the details about China were really perceptive and things you almost don't notice, so it was nice to see them detailed out in the book - I can't ride my bike down the sidewalk here in Shanghia now without thinking of her line ..the clinking of the sidewalk tiles as the wheels rolled... If I had read that in the US I would have just skipped over it without it really registering. The only think about the book was that it was hard to to really know what made Da Ge tick, it was always just her perception of him.. I would have liked to have heard his voice besides just from his letters.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and, I think, still rare account of how a younger Chinese generation grapples with their troubled national past. This story is about a 20-something American woman, living in Manhattan, who becomes the ESL teacher for a rather disturbed recent Chinese (male) immigrant of about the same age. Both, it turns out, are mentally unstable, and the story recounts their troubled but intimate relationship and its repercussions over twenty or more years, both in the US and China. It's interesting, though not earth-shattering. It was my experience living in China and thinking about many of issues the book raised that made the story particularly interesting to me.

[Shoshana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by someone I trust, and I see exactly why she recommended it, and maybe I just picked it up at the wrong time, but I didn't get through it before I had to return it to the library. I kept picking up other books instead, or writing song lyrics instead, or daydreaming instead. I don't know if the plot was too slow for me, or I didn't like the characters, or the prose just wasn't up my alley, or if the first person was getting to me (I have an automatic put-it-down reaction to first person, even though I've read a ton of great books in the first person), and I may try it again someday, but in the meantime, meh. I'd love to hear what other people think of it, though!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent storytelling. The format has chapters for each month of the year simultaneously in 1989 and 2001. I thought that this was very effective for telling two important storylines with the same characters. It is great to read about the everyday life of a tween's single mom while learning of the train wreck that she was before the daughter's birth. The love story and circumstances are not very realistic and I never really bought in to her deep love and devotion to Da Ge but I loved the Naomi and Xiao Wang support characters. It was also very interesting to have a first person account of a psychotic breakdown.

[Gary Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend Rai says that all my Goodreads are just to tout my radio program, From the Bookshelf (http://web.mac.com/garyshapiro) but it's not true! Yes Rachel DeWoskin was my guest recently, but the reason she was on the show was because I love both her books. But I know all my Goodreads pals will love her new novel. It is a touching and beautiful work, written with the touch of the poet. I promise you will love it.

[Shari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book! Aysha is a 22 year old New Yorker who suffers from manic depression and is trying desperately to keep her life on track. She meets a young Chinese student and falls in love with him – this changes her life forever. The characters in this book are wonderful, smart, funny, sad and so real but is it the relationships (Aysha with Da Ge, here friends, her mother and her daughter) that I enjoyed more than anything. I think this would be a great book club book.

[Emily Crowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this book as engaging as Big Girl Small, which was one of my top ten books read last year (though the main character in Repeat After Me references writing a novel in which a teenage dwarf gets involved in a sex scandal!), this had plenty of funny lost-in-translation moments. Anybody who appreciates the richness of language and the vast differences between Chinese and English would probably enjoy this book.

[Rj · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was refreshing. I believe it was DeWoskin's first fictional novel. Her writing has improved since Foreign Babes in Beijing(which I also enjoyed). Her style is unique and her first hand knowledge of Chinese culture is obvious. While the characters and their relationships could have easily been predictable and cliche, they read as complex and three-dimensional.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and couldn't stop thinking about it even days after I finished. Her characters are so real and story moves at a good pace. Even though she basically tells the reader what will happen, there's still plenty of suspense at the end. Her insights into Chinese-American marriages is completely on the ball.

[Nadine Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this and enjoyed it. Quick read. Story of young woman teacher who travels to Bejing after death of her hubby--one of her students who kills himself before she can tell him of her pregenancy. She is he teacher, ESL. He is a student who was sent from his homeland, by his dad, week before student revold and never adjust to America.

[KayLee · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3-3.5) First of all, I have NEVER met/read about anyone who counts on their fingers like I do. I was so amazed to read that; Aysha is a lot like me in her way of thinking. I never liked Da Ge, but I liked charming little Julia Too and especially Xia Wang (or however you spell her name, it's cool)
Unique story about cultural differences and the meaning of family. :)

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

plot: eh
'deepness': the kind of deep that is like #deep
characters: confusing
hilariousness: eh
writing style: riveting enough for me to finish the book
quotes: they're there

where/when did i read this:
where/when should you read this: if you're interested in 'intercultural' relationships then ya