Coming of Age and the Chinese American Dream

I just finished Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok which definitely has the feel of her earlier work, Girl in Translation – it is also about a poor immigrant girl with little support from parents (e.g., when school suggests she is dyslexic, Dad is too intimidated to find out more).  In Mambo in Chinatown the Dad is more tied to another culture and is not able to help his child assimilate successfully. Instead, the main character, Charlie, makes her own way by pursuing work at a dance company, a setting which Kwok evokes with some interesting descriptions.  Jean Kwok is a very approachable author and I enjoy her books.  However, I felt that this one could have relied less on coincidences and done more to help the reader understand certain cultural aspects such as tenacious respect for elders particularly since I was so very frustrated for Charlie and her lack of opportunities and adult support.  Maybe it is just that I did not fully appreciate how hard it was for Charlie to break away from her parents' culture?

I have been thinking quite a bit about immigration and assimilation because as I was simultaneously reading a non-fiction work, A Chinaman’s Chance by Eric Liu, which I found to be a MUCH more entertaining and informative read. Consider simply the section, “A Guide to Punctuation,” where he comments on the impact of describing Americans of Chinese ethnicity in these different ways:

• Chinese-American
• Chinese / American
• Chinese, American
• Chinese (American)
• (Chinese) American or
• Chinese American

I think that my students, particularly those who are first or second generation Americans of ANY ethnicity, will find A Chinaman’s Chance to be a fascinating read. Applying Liu’s research to their own lives or to fictionalized accounts like those by Jean Kwok or Amy Tan will give them much to contemplate.  They could also pair it with works by Maxine Kingston Hong or with Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese. In fact, our Senior Writers Seminar students already read American Born Chinese and I am excited that one of our teachers is considering including A Chinaman’s Chance on that syllabus. A former Presidential speechwriter turned educator, Eric Liu is a very conversational and personable writer – I learned much and enjoyed the way he wove stories about his own family and about historical figures and events (like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882) into his argument. He also includes a very extensive bibliography for further reference. This is a book that I hope to find time to re-read and to reflect upon further; it is one of the best of the year for me so far.   

Relationships ... lost and found

In Landline by Rainbow Rowell Georgie McCool is out to save her 15 years of marriage.  Her husband Neal travels to Omaha with their 2 daughters to celebrate 2013’s Christmas while Georgie stays behind for work in Los Angeles….. magically (and due to some clever writing!) she makes the connection via a landline from 2013 to 1998 when she and Neal were dating and struggling to come to terms with what they each wanted from the relationship.  Remember those emotions? How everything seemed more vivid? And had more drama?  It’s easy to see (from the outside) that Georgie needs to take some deep breaths and think about what is really important to her – watching her go through that process can be painful at times.  Readers who have been in longer-term relationships will definitely appreciate this novel, but to me that means 20-somethings or older – NOT the high school students who loved Rowell’s Eleanor and Park and Fangirl.

Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy is a collection of short stories centered in a street in Dublin and many of them focus on marriages, too. Binchy explores the life choices we make – the advice that we often choose not to follow and the consequences of those decisions. This is a book about love and loss which I would ration – picking it up for a story now and again – in part to avoid the feeling of similar plots (although there are plenty of unexpected twists) and in part to savor the last published writing of a favorite author for 30 years beginning with reading Light a Penny Candle, and continuing through Circle of Friends, Scarlet Feather and many more.

Possible read-alikes for Binchy: Jeffrey Archer, Rosamunde Pilcher, Kate Morton, Lucinda Riley, Adriana Trigiani.  Check Novelist for others.

 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

If you love It's a Wonderful Life and Jimmy Stewart, then read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. The much beloved main character is Ove, a 59 year-old Swedish man who recently lost his wife and thinks his own life should be over. He's funny and heartwarming and exasperatingly "crotchety" and rule-bound all at the same time.  A new family -- Lanky One, pregnant Parvaneh and their girls (ages 3 and 7) -- move in next door and the adventures begin…

Ove slowly opens up to a stray cat,  re-establishes relationships with other neighbors and  uses his anger to find the will to battle the "white shirts" (bureaucrats who are just as inflexible in Sweden as in the US).  Along the way, readers learn about Ove’s young life and his marriage to Sonja:  "He never understood why she chose him.  She only loved abstract things like music and books and strange words. Ove was a man entirely filled with tangible things.  He liked screwdrivers and oil filters.  He went through life with his hands firmly shoved into his pockets.  She danced."

In all honesty, I was a bit put off by some of the talk of suicide - especially for high school age readers, but I ultimately found the character to be endearing and even highly amusing at times. With so many crises and those unique neighbors, the vignettes circle round and each is charmingly told as Ove convinces us that "men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they say." Yes, there were also several moments when felt like crying, but I was heartened by the way in which the community rallied around Ove much like the movie character George Bailey finally learned the value of his life when seen through the eyes of others.

Prime Minister’s Secret Agent by Susan Elia MacNeal

I liked the fact that there were multiple story lines in this book – a 4^th in a mystery series set at the time of WWII. The book features Maggie Hope, a young American thwarted in her desires to academically pursue mathematics due to her gender. Instead, she has moved to the UK and her courage and skills eventually lead to adventures involving cryptography and interactions with several historical figures, including Winston Churchill. Readers could start with this as a stand-alone, but I recommend reading the earlier books (starting with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary) and getting to "know" Maggie and her friends and colleagues as they mature and are shaped by wartime events. In The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent, MacNeal again addresses the hard choices and horrors of war, weaving in development of biological weapons, PTSD/depression and personal sacrifice.

This title picked up when Maggie left the SOE (Special Operations Executive) training area in Scotland and actively sought to find the reason for two murders and her close friend’s sudden illness. In addition, it was fascinating to read details about the US and British spy apparatus, particularly in regards to what was known prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Even knowing what would happen, I kept hoping there was a way to prevent the carnage suffered there. With several unresolved plot elements, author MacNeal clearly has plans for more historical mysteries featuring Maggie.

Reminiscent of titles by Rhys Bowen, Charles Todd, or Jacqueline Winspear, look for The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent and others in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal if you are looking for stories about a strong, clever woman or are a fan of the pbs series The Bletchley Circle.

Looking for more reading suggestions this summer?

Looking for more reading suggestions this summer? Here are a few ideas from Edutopia which just came across my desk:

• Crowd-sourced recommendations for Educators – this page is full of links to pursue online for ideas, including a Pinterest like the one created with ASCD and a huge list across genres from LA Times. Pam and Marc also put together a list for administrators with titles like: Drive (by Pink), Decisive (by Chip and Dan Heath), or Smarter than You Think by Thompson. 
• 7 Great E-Books for Summer Reading on iPads  -- these titles are geared towards elementary school age children and some require a purchase.  If you have an iPad, check out borrowing eBooks from your local public library – they will have free collections for young children.  At New Trier, we offer eBooks for teens and adults through both OverDrive and FollettShelf – see links on the main library page and sign in with your networkID and password. 

The Illinois School Library Media Association nominates award winning books for students at several ages; their pdf lists are here: Monarch (K-3); Bluestem (3-5); and Rebecca Caudill (4-8). And we have a LibGuide for the Abe Lincoln Award (high school) nominees. Also, Steve Abram recently suggested these additional sources for book recommendations:  Goodreads  OR Bookbub OR LibraryThing OR Reddit’s BookSuggestions.

On our database page, we also link to Novelist which lets you look for authors and titles which may be similar to ones you have read and enjoyed. Have something else to add?  Contact a New Trier librarian OR let us know in the comment section below.