Jessica Au
Autore di Cold Enough for Snow
Opere di Jessica Au
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Cold Enough for Snow
If you asked me to tell you the plot of this book, I could not remember. If you asked me to tell you the names of the characters or the places they visited, I could not remember. All I can tell you is that this book grabbed hold of my heart and did not let go until the end. Beautiful.
Quite lovely, the rare book about memory, family, and contemplating the past that doesn't get hung up in melancholy, but rather explores how these things affect ourselves and our lives with a tone of accepting and trying to understand.
A short novella which goes against many of the conventions of novel writing.
There is virtually no plot - a daughter takes her mother on a holiday to Japan. There are no other characters - although the daughter reflects on some others - her first boyfriend, her husband, her sister. The writing style is chatty - almost like a long letter home while travelling.
But the core of the book is the first generation migrant experience. The narrator is Australian-born Chinese, and reflects on the life of of her and her sister compared to the life of her mother in Hong Kong. The contrast is stark but the narrator doesn't dwell on it. It's left to the reader to marvel at the distance between the dirt floor house in China of the mother and the liberal arts tertiary education of the daughter.
This is a great "people story", but if the background is the story, I can't help wishing there was something more in the foreground. There's one quirky moment - after being away on a hike for a night and a day, the narrator comes back and can't find her mother at the accommodation. And the host says that it was only booked for one guest. Was the mother really there? Was she travelling alone and only thinking deeply of her mother? If this is "the catch" it needed a little more development.… (altro)
There is virtually no plot - a daughter takes her mother on a holiday to Japan. There are no other characters - although the daughter reflects on some others - her first boyfriend, her husband, her sister. The writing style is chatty - almost like a long letter home while travelling.
But the core of the book is the first generation migrant experience. The narrator is Australian-born Chinese, and reflects on the life of of her and her sister compared to the life of her mother in Hong Kong. The contrast is stark but the narrator doesn't dwell on it. It's left to the reader to marvel at the distance between the dirt floor house in China of the mother and the liberal arts tertiary education of the daughter.
This is a great "people story", but if the background is the story, I can't help wishing there was something more in the foreground. There's one quirky moment - after being away on a hike for a night and a day, the narrator comes back and can't find her mother at the accommodation. And the host says that it was only booked for one guest. Was the mother really there? Was she travelling alone and only thinking deeply of her mother? If this is "the catch" it needed a little more development.… (altro)
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Statistiche
- Opere
- 3
- Utenti
- 298
- Popolarità
- #78,715
- Voto
- 3.7
- Recensioni
- 15
- ISBN
- 16
- Lingue
- 5