Mott Street by Ava Chin

A truly fascinating account of Chinese-American history as traced through the writer’s family, through five generations. Mott Street is titled after a street in New York City’s Chinatown, where many of Chin’s family lived. 

Chin brings these stories to light by imagining what some of the scenarios might have been like, with fictionalised scenes that help to fill in some gaps. It takes a bit of getting used to but does help me create in my mind these scenes. 

“But when you’re Chinese in America, with roots that stretch back to the Exclusion era, it is the historical record that is a fabulist fabrication, and the oral stories, passed down from generation to generation, like rare, evolving heirlooms, that ultimately hold the keys to the truth.”

I was in awe with the amount of research that Ava Chin dug up about her family. She traces five generations of her Chinese American family, even unearthing their official documents, unofficial documents, collecting oral histories that have been passed down through the generations. 

She manages to track down their Chinese Exclusion files on both sides of her family, kept at the National Archives and Records Administration. The government kept extensive files on Chinese immigrants, with meticulous details from their interviews, trying to determine if they were indeed who they said they were. According to the writer, questions even included details like the distance from the village drinking well to the house, descriptions of the house, which family members were alive and were dead. All in a bid to restrict the numbers of Chinese immigrating into the US. 

“They call it exclusion,” wrote Chan Kiu Sing, a Methodist minister from Los Angeles, just after Chinese Exclusion was made permanent, “but it is not exclusion, it is extermination.”

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. In 1943, 105 (!) Chinese immigrants were allowed to enter each year. But it was only in 1965 with the passing of the Immigration Act that this 105 quota was removed. 

I enjoyed this audiobook, which the author herself narrates, but also borrowed the ebook which does show some of the documents and photos that the writer uncovered. Earlier this year, I read Ghosts of Gold Mountain by Gordon H Chang, another extensively researched history  of the Chinese who worked on the transcontinental railroad, and would highly recommend it if you’re interested in more Chinese-American history. 

What I’d Rather Not Talk About – Jente Posthuma

This book just was so hard to get through, despite its short chapters (more like vignettes that skip back and forth throughout the timeline) and 224 pages. It’s a story about suicide, the loss of a twin, coming to terms with death and grief. It’s not a book that anyone can say that they enjoy, since it is such a heavy topic, but it was simply told, and there was beauty in simplicity. It’s a hard read though, and won’t be for everyone.

What I’d Rather Not Talk About is shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

What an epic tale of immense proportions. I didn’t know what to expect of this book, except that it was on all those “best of” lists at the end of 2023. And also, this is my first McBride book but it won’t be my last!

He brings the reader into the neighborhood of Chicken Hill, Pennsylvania in the 1920s and 30s, populated with Black and Jewish residents. These complicated webs of relationships he weaves! The story unfurls beautifully but it takes some concentration and patience to keep track of the very many different characters that are thrown together in this world that McBride created.

McBride takes an unflinching look at race relations at the time but somehow still manages to imbue the tale with humour and such love and kindness.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Once, when I lived in the seaside town of Brighton, England, a fox strolled past me on the street. It was at night, and I was with friends along the walkway that overlooks the beach. The fox trotted nonchalantly past us and the rest of the people out haunting the streets that night. It disappeared from my view shortly after, and while our encounter was fleeting, it has never left my memories.

Foxes have long been seen as tricksters in various cultures. In Chinese culture, which is what I’m most familiar with, 狐狸精 or hulijing (fox spirit) are shapeshifters, depicted sometimes as both good and evil, not quite god or demon. This is similar to the kitsune and gumiho myths in Japanese and Korean cultures too.

But back to The Fox Wife. Yangsze Choo, who is from Malaysia, has written other Asian mythology-related books, The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger. Both books I would highly recommend! So I went into this full of expectations, and I was not disappointed.

The Fox Wife is a beautifully subtle, atmospheric book. It is essentially a tale of revenge, for Snow, a fox who has shapeshifter into a woman, is hunting down the man who killed her child. It is also the tale of Bao, a detective of sorts. He has this strange ability to tell when others are lying. And he’s investigating the death of a young woman who was found outside a restaurant in the cold. The restaurant owner wants Bao to find out her name, so that proper prayers can be said and that she can be put to rest.

“This case, with its overtones of foxes and lost girls, fills Bao with strange urgency. He has the uneasy sensation that he’s walking into a shadowy realm. No longer a child, he’s an old man now, setting out into an unknown forest of lies an half-truths.”

Snow, as the title gives a big hint to, is a wife. She has a husband and that husband is later revealed in the book. And I can’t help but think back to this point that Snow makes early on in the first chapter:

“…though most tales focus on the beautiful female foxes who live by devouring qi, or life force, little is said about the males. Women who run around wilfully doing whatever they please are bound to be censured. A handsome, cunning man is a different matter.”

So while we expect a tale of cunning and misdeeds from Snow, in reality, it is not that easy, not as a young woman in Asia in the early 1900s. For instance, traveling alone as a young girl attracts unwanted attention, and she manages to get on a train by following a pimp. Later, she finds work as a servant in a rich household that owns a traditional medicine shop.

While Snow’s is the main story, Bao’s is told in alternating chapters, and it feels like a cat and mouse game as he traces her steps and catches up to her. Bao’s story is an intriguing one, and we are told much of it through his childhood memories, his own encounters with foxes as a child, and his mysterious abilities – and what is happening to his shadow? When I first saw his name, Bao, I immediately thought of the legendary character Bao Gong (Justice Bao), who apparently was a real-life man from China (born in the year 999), but who many know from wuxia stories, Chinese mythology, or maybe it was the 1990s TV series. Bao Gong is known for his fairness and bringing bad guys to justice.

Despite the whole murder-mystery element of the story, this is a book without that kind of urgency that some readers might expect. It takes its time to build up the encircling stories of Snow and Bao, but I thoroughly enjoyed the way Choo edges the gaps between them closer and closer. Their stories were artfully woven together in a satisfying and beautiful tale.

It’s Monday (April 15, 2024)

Some things last week:

We took my mom out for a very early Mother’s Day lunch of seafood! She’s visiting from Singapore and won’t be here during Mother’s Day. We had uni pasta, calamari, and more.

My mom loved the seafood tower! There were so many different types of seafood:

a dozen oysters, mussels, prawn cocktail, uni, tuna sashimi, scallops, a whole lobster, snow crab!

Made focaccia – was initially confused by a recipe I found online which suggested it didn’t need much kneading, and Claire Saffitz’s recipe, which uses the mixer and dough hook to knead it for a good ten min or so. So in the end, I follow Saffitz’s method to knead it more although I had already started the other recipe. It did come out nice and airy, and the kids devoured it.

It was also the readathon on Saturday, and I had planned on reading some of these. Instead I read none of these books, but I did finish up one book (The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store) that I had been dragging my heels on (more when I put up my post on it). As well as a couple of other books too.

Currently…

Reading:

The Fox Maidens – Robin Ha

Mater 2-10 – Hwang Sok-yong

Watching:

With the rest of the family, Wonka! I hadn’t realised that it was a Willy Wonka origin story, and not a remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (not that I have anything against that, but I guess I was into a more original storyline).

Listening:

I just finished listening to The Rabbit Hutch and am looking for a new audiobook

Eating and Drinking:

Oolong tea at the moment as I have a ticklish throat!

Cooking:

It’s a chilly Monday morning (and it was an unusually chilly April weekend), and with my ticklish throat I thought I’d make some vegetable soup for lunch.

Last week:

I read:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow – Mariko Tamaki

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store – James McBride

I posted:

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

Read in February 2024

Library Loot (April 10 to 16)

Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog   and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

Ok so the only reason I picked up this book was to fulfill a reading challenge prompt to read a duology. This is book one in the Blood Gift duology. Also that cover is quite an eye catching one, isn’t it? 

But I ended up loving this book and immediately put a hold on the next one. It’s exciting and dark, also rather violent at times. 

Ikenna is the granddaughter of the former Legatus, one of the highest ranking commanders in the Republic of Mareen, who has been found dead. After she learns that it’s no accident, she decides to join the Praetorian Trials, a kind of special ops team. Only a Praetorian Guard could have killed her grandfather, and she hopes for revenge. But the trials are ridiculously tough – only a quarter of the entrants survive. It’s like Physical 100, except if you lose, you die. 

Ikenna is angry and hot headed but is also full of passion. As the granddaughter of the Legatus, she has so much to live up to. And she needs to prove herself against all the other aspirants, many of whom look down on her as she’s of a mixed heritage. 

The book does deal with issues like misogyny, racism, nepotism, as well as brutal violence. I guess you could say it is a kind of military science fiction? Although I feel like labeling it as so might put off some readers. Instead, how about calling it diverse speculative fiction/murder mystery with a strong female main character, set in a world where fighting ability and warfare is championed.

Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

A fun graphic novel about a young girl who dreams of being a knight. Loved the Middle Eastern/ North African-inspired world and the spunky Aiza, who’s one of the oppressed Ornu people. Themes of colonialism and prejudice, as well as the violence of war are thoughtfully discussed. But it’s the stellar artwork and colours that steal the show. Gorgeous.

His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

The story opens with a wedding in Ghana. The narrator, Afi, is getting married. But her groom Elikem (Eli) isn’t there. She barely knows him but it’s still a celebration nonetheless. It’s a chance for her family to gain back their status, lost when her father died ten years ago. 

“It wasn’t easy being the key to other people’s happiness, their victory, and their vindication. I desperately wanted the wedding to be over because then I would have done my part. Or, rather, I would have begun to do my part.”

Eli is the son of her mother’s benefactor. And this marriage is a way for Eli’s mother (a powerful controlling woman known as Aunty) to get her son back. For Afi, this is the best chance she has at life. She couldn’t get into university, and now she gets to move into a luxury apartment in the big city. 

But weeks after the wedding, Eli still hasn’t shown, and Afi is lonely and panicking. Amazingly, when she finally meets Eli, he’s actually sweet and good looking. The only problem is that he won’t give up his other woman. 

I loved following Afi’s growth from a naive country girl into this confident, independent woman, continually surrounded by the demands and expectations heaped onto her by family and this patriarchal society. This is a story of a woman adapting to society, learning to stand up for herself. It’s readable and engaging, and immerses the reader in Ghanaian life.

All The Sinners Bleed – S.A. Cosby

“Terrible people can do good things sometimes. But they like doing the terrible things more.”

What an excellent read this was. Intense, exciting, and at its center, a former FBI agent elected the first Black sheriff of Charon County, Virginia. At first, a school shooting that claims the life of a beloved school teacher, but this leads to the discovery that there’s a serial killer living in their town, carrying out brutal and grisly murders. And while the story is thrilling and keeps the reader turning the pages, the heart of the story is its depiction of small town rural America, the struggles of Sheriff Titus Crowne (conflicted, full of quiet anger), and the interactions (volatile, tense) among the white and Black residents. Crosby tackles issues of racism, white supremacy, religious fundamentalism, and violence skilfully. 

“The moment he announced his candidacy he had made a choice to live in a no-man’s-land between people who believed in him, people who hated him because of his skin color, and people who believed he was a traitor to his race. He tried his best to stand on the border of that undiscovered country, bloodied but unbowed.”

This was my first venture into Crosby’s work, and I was just floored by it. I can’t wait to see what his other books are like.

Finding Me by Viola Davis

“C********* mother******” was my favorite expression and at eight years old, I used it defiantly. I was a spunky, sassy mess and when I spewed that expression, one hand would be on my hip, my middle finger in vast display, and maybe my tongue would be sticking out.” 
(note: asterisks are mine)

And with that Viola Davis draws the reader into her childhood, her young life filled with poverty, racism, domestic violence, abuse, and living in a condemned building infested with rats. It’s a brutally honest and sometimes shocking story about her life. 

One of the saddest moments was in elementary school when teacher told her she smelled and had to do something about it. But most times, their family didn’t have soap or hot water, and had to hand wash clothes. After young Viola went home and washed her clothes and body well, she waited to be acknowledged for the improvement, but sadly, her teachers never really noticed her after that. 

“The invisibility of the one-two punch that is Blackness and poverty is brutal. Mix that with being hungry all the damn time and it becomes combustible.”

Her perseverance, hard work, and talent got her a scholarship to Rhode Island College, and even then she didn’t stop, she kept pushing, performing and working, as well as studying. She made it to Juilliard but is let down by their Eurocentric approach, like playing white 18th century characters in wigs and corsets. After Juilliard, she found it hard to find good acting roles, as many of the roles were for drug addicts. 

I haven’t really followed Davis’ career, as I only really watched her in How to Get Away With Murder, a TV series where she plays a lawyer and professor who gets entangled in a murder, along with some of her students. But now I want to watch everything else she’s been in. I saw that there’s a Netflix special that she did with Oprah Winfrey about the memoir, and can’t wait to watch it. 

If you haven’t read this memoir yet, I would recommend listening to the audiobook. I loved listening to Viola Davis read her story. She has such a deep and rich tone to her voice, it’s gorgeous.