Displacement

by David Wong Louie

Genres: Short Stories

15 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

David Wong Louie (雷祖威; pinyin: Léi Zǔwēi) is an American writer of novels and short stories. His works include "Pangs of Love" a collection of short stories, and the novel "The Barbarians are Coming." He co-edited "A Contemporary Asian American Anthology" with Marilyn Chin. He teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He received an M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts) in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa in 1981 and a B.A. from Vassar College in 1977.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story of a former aristocratic, and educated Chinese woman named Chow who becomes a care giver for a widow after joining her husband in the United States. The widow accuses Mrs. Chow of being a thief who steals her cookies. This is only one of the mild slights, and insults she must endure as she adjusts to life in America after being displaced from her home land. The only freedom she feels is when she rides a rollercoaster at the local amusement park.

[Shuggy L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. and Mrs. Chow’s experiences in California looking after an elderly woman. They search for a new home and meet Velvet, Ed, High Noon (cat), Remora Cass.

They have immigrated from China. Mrs. Chow was formerly wealthy and is educated. Her parents had behaved unpleasant towards her and had asked her husband to take her far away from them,

At this time, she is not choosing to have children like her four sisters.

[ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not a bad short story; I just needed to keep rereading to figure out what was going on. Maybe it's because I read this for an English class and not on my own volition, but I didn't care too much for this story. There was no reason to care for the characters; some of them were so underdeveloped you couldn't even call them static.