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#11-12, 50 PoC Book Reviews
11. Henry Chang, Chinatown Beat
Jack was born and grew up in New York City's Chinatown, and now that he's an adult, he's back in the neighborhood working as a cop; Johnny is a new Chinese immigrant with little to no English, working as a hired driver; Mona is also a recent Chinese immigrant, brought to NYC by Uncle Four, an older man involved with powerful gangs, to be his mistress. This novel switches between these three characters' narrations, and is about what happens when they interact. It's not much of a mystery (since the reader always knows who did what), though it's definitely noir. The language is very chilly and the world is very bleak; I know these are pretty much the defining traits of noir, but they very much didn't work for me in this book. In fact, I was so uninvolved in it that I put it down and read several other books before finishing it, coming back to it only because I figured there were only 50 pages left, so I may as well finish it.
The other thing I disliked in this book is that every female character is portrayed, to one degree or another, as a pushy, grasping bitch (or, in few scenes, as a damsel in distress). It was quite grating by the third or fourth character (that's an understatement).
On the good side, I thought this book did do a very good job of describing the look and feel of NYC's Chinatown, and I really enjoyed reading about the way the different racial groups (particularly Chinese, black, and Hispanic) uneasily interacted with one another.
12. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I know everyone has already said this, but: So! Good!
This book is about Junior, a Native American teenager living on a Spokane reservation, who decides to go to an all-white high school in a nearby town. He draws cartoons, and the text of the book is accompanied by drawings (done by Ellen Forney). The story deals with Junior's choice to leave the reservation, how the other Indians react to that choice, particularly his best friend, Rowdy, and the way he is treated by the white students, teachers, and other adults at the school. Everything is complicated, and done with such detail and honesty. It's funny, really funny, but what I was most surprised by was how tragic the book was also. There's a lot of death, and bad choices, and tough realities in here. Very highly recommended.
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50books_poc
Jack was born and grew up in New York City's Chinatown, and now that he's an adult, he's back in the neighborhood working as a cop; Johnny is a new Chinese immigrant with little to no English, working as a hired driver; Mona is also a recent Chinese immigrant, brought to NYC by Uncle Four, an older man involved with powerful gangs, to be his mistress. This novel switches between these three characters' narrations, and is about what happens when they interact. It's not much of a mystery (since the reader always knows who did what), though it's definitely noir. The language is very chilly and the world is very bleak; I know these are pretty much the defining traits of noir, but they very much didn't work for me in this book. In fact, I was so uninvolved in it that I put it down and read several other books before finishing it, coming back to it only because I figured there were only 50 pages left, so I may as well finish it.
The other thing I disliked in this book is that every female character is portrayed, to one degree or another, as a pushy, grasping bitch (or, in few scenes, as a damsel in distress). It was quite grating by the third or fourth character (that's an understatement).
On the good side, I thought this book did do a very good job of describing the look and feel of NYC's Chinatown, and I really enjoyed reading about the way the different racial groups (particularly Chinese, black, and Hispanic) uneasily interacted with one another.
12. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
I know everyone has already said this, but: So! Good!
This book is about Junior, a Native American teenager living on a Spokane reservation, who decides to go to an all-white high school in a nearby town. He draws cartoons, and the text of the book is accompanied by drawings (done by Ellen Forney). The story deals with Junior's choice to leave the reservation, how the other Indians react to that choice, particularly his best friend, Rowdy, and the way he is treated by the white students, teachers, and other adults at the school. Everything is complicated, and done with such detail and honesty. It's funny, really funny, but what I was most surprised by was how tragic the book was also. There's a lot of death, and bad choices, and tough realities in here. Very highly recommended.
Crossposted to
50books_poc