Friday, December 16, 2005

Inheritance by Lan Samantha Chang

This was not entirely satisfying. I had to consult Wikipedia, as my grasp of Chinese history is not good, but that's not the fault of the book. I thought it sounded good: the story of a family's survival in China during the 1920's through the 1940's, then into the present day.

I felt that there was too much analysis of the meaning of everything, and not enough action. There could have been action; it was there, off stage. The historical events were alluded to, though never witnessed. I was frustrated by that. I also didn't like the narration. Sometimes it's in first person, and sometimes it's from the POV of the mother or the sister. Is this a (fictional) memoir or a novel? It doesn't work as both.

More information is available here.

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