Overview
Lin Jun has everything a modern woman in China could hope for: a fulfilling job, a handsome intellectual husband, a son, a mother-in-law with connections, and an impressive TV set with which to see the larger world. But neither the TV set nor her marriage is working: her husband is frustrated by his career, her very young son is already at a state boarding school, and she has been given the extra work of interpreting for the young American woman who has come to teach at their school. The transition to the new social freedoms is dismaying. Should she selflessly continue teaching or use her skills to obtain a lucrative job in the new economy? Should she stick it out with her husband or do the unthinkable. A friend urges her in one direction, her "old" culture in another. Lin Jun must face the challenge of China's emerging identity and her own.Synopsis
Lin Jun has everything a modern woman in China could hope for: a fulfilling job, a handsome intellectual husband, a son, a mother-in-law with connections, and an impressive TV set with which to see the larger world. But neither the TV set nor her marriage is working: her husband is frustrated by his career, her very young son is already at a state boarding school, and she has been given the extra work of interpreting for the young American woman who has come to teach at their school. The transition to the new social freedoms is dismaying. Should she selflessly continue teaching or use her skills to obtain a lucrative job in the new economy? Should she stick it out with her husband or do the unthinkable. A friend urges her in one direction, her "old" culture in another. Lin Jun must face the challenge of China's emerging identity and her own.
Publishers Weekly
Lin Jun's beautiful face has brought her a good teaching job, a handsome husband and a bright, loving son. A young woman in modern China could ask for no more, and yet Lin Jun feels dissatisfied with her existence, especially when her job brings her into contact with a young American teacher. Cynthia's views on life contrast strongly with her own, and Lin Jun begins to question how lucky she really is, particularly in her marriage. Ultimately, a lack of common priorities and an inability to communicate make her consider a divorce. In this novel about conflicting Chinese and American values, Chai stacks the deck in favor of the individualist pursuit of happiness. Clearly Lin Jun, and Lin Jun's contentment, outweigh Chai's interest in culture clashor, for that matter, in her secondary characters (in even the pivotal Cynthia, of whose life we learn very little). The most vivid passages of writing come in flashbacks in which Lin Jun recalls, for instance, her difficult childhood at the home of her peasant aunt during the Cultural Revolution, or a terrifying act of violence at the Great Wall during a teachers' conference. Loose ends (including a subplot about Lin Jun's missing brother) are left dangling, and the status of her relationships with various family members and friends remain unclearas, perhaps, it must. Chai's quiet prose resists epiphanies; so too, the plot of her domestic drama resists any easy resolution. Her sincere, unassuming debut should nevertheless win her, and the conflicted Lin Jun, the sympathy of many readers. Author tour. (Aug.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Lin Jun's beautiful face has brought her a good teaching job, a handsome husband and a bright, loving son. A young woman in modern China could ask for no more, and yet Lin Jun feels dissatisfied with her existence, especially when her job brings her into contact with a young American teacher. Cynthia's views on life contrast strongly with her own, and Lin Jun begins to question how lucky she really is, particularly in her marriage. Ultimately, a lack of common priorities and an inability to communicate make her consider a divorce. In this novel about conflicting Chinese and American values, Chai stacks the deck in favor of the individualist pursuit of happiness. Clearly Lin Jun, and Lin Jun's contentment, outweigh Chai's interest in culture clashor, for that matter, in her secondary characters in even the pivotal Cynthia, of whose life we learn very little. The most vivid passages of writing come in flashbacks in which Lin Jun recalls, for instance, her difficult childhood at the home of her peasant aunt during the Cultural Revolution, or a terrifying act of violence at the Great Wall during a teachers' conference. Loose ends including a subplot about Lin Jun's missing brother are left dangling, and the status of her relationships with various family members and friends remain unclearas, perhaps, it must. Chai's quiet prose resists epiphanies; so too, the plot of her domestic drama resists any easy resolution. Her sincere, unassuming debut should nevertheless win her, and the conflicted Lin Jun, the sympathy of many readers. Author tour. Aug.Library Journal
Call it a "second-coming-of-age" story, in which a settled married woman reassesses and then restructures a previously unexamined life, finding liberty and then self-fulfillment as she leaves behind her familiar constraints. It's popular enough to be a subgenre, and this first novel by Chinese American author Chai is an interesting addition. Possessed of a good-fortune face, according to her imposing Auntie Gao, Lin Jun feels anything but fortunate despite her work, husband, and beloved son. A middle-school teacher in China, she befriends Cynthia, an American woman who has arrived to teach English at her school. Influenced by her formative years in the Cultural Revolution, by her new American friend, and by an awakening sense of self, Lin Jun feels awkward, stupid, and incapable yet dreams of leaving behind her unfulfilling marriage and creating a new life for herself. This novel reflects attitudes and experiences foreign to most Western readers in the context of a familiar, popular story. For substantial fiction collections.Janet Ingraham, Worthington P.L., OhioSan Diego Union-Tribune
Beautifully told . . . The story of the triumph of one woman who examines her life until she becomes the woman she wants to be regardless of history.Kirkus Reviews
A richly detailed but emotionally tepid first novel about a Chinese woman who decides to leave her bright, unhappy husband and cycle off alone in search of happiness.By current Chinese standards, Lin-Jun has everything: a job teaching English in a Nanjing middle school; a husband, Shao Hong, with a white-collar job; an adorable young son, Bao-bao; and an apartment of their own. Life should be bliss, then, especially for a 31-year-old woman whose parents were victims of the Cultural Revolution. (Lin-Jun spent her childhood in the countryside with Auntie Gao, a gruff but loving friend of her mother's, who insisted that Lin-Jun learn to read and study.) While she enjoys her work, however, some colleagues are jealous of her; although her marriage began as a love match, Shao Hong, dissatisfied in his job, has lately been avoiding his wife and working late; and Bao-bao is healthy and loving but, though only five, spends the week at a boarding school. Lin-Jun's only source of pleasure now is riding her bicycle, her Flying Pigeon—an "ally when the silence of [her] apartment becomes too much to bear." The arrival of Cynthia, an American exchange teacher for whom Lin-Jun is appointed interpreter, crystallizes these discontents. Cynthia urges Lin-Jun to change her life, move to another city, and leave Shao-Hong. A humiliating job interview in nearby Shanghai and her in-laws' revelations about the painful childhood of Shao-Jong weaken her resolve. Then, however, despite the disapproval of her family and colleagues, she decides after all that she no longer loves her husband and asks for a divorce. If she stays married, she says, she "would not be happy. . . would never feel free."
A timely setting and elegant writing don't help a protagonist who looks good, talks persuasively, but somehow never comes alive. A disappointing debut.