Finished January 2
The Long March Home by Zoe S Roy
This book follows Meihua, a young mother in China and her daughter Yezi. Meihua is the daughter of an American missionary woman and a Chinese man. She was born in the United States, but came to China to try to find her father. Instead she met and married Lon, and began a family. With the Cultural Revolution, Lon has been sent to the mines, and Meihua is struggling to keep a low profile and support her family with the help of a servant, Yao. When Meihua is denounced and sent to labour camp, Yao stays unpaid and raises the two younger children, struggling to keep enough food on the table. Yezi is only a baby, and grows close to Yao, even while seeing her father occasionally and her mother once a year.
As Yezi grows, the restrictions abate, and Meihua is released. Yezi learns about her American grandmother and joins her mother in curiosity about her grandfather.
I found the parts in China compelling and interesting as well as Yezi's experience when she came to see her grandmother. But the ending of this novel seemed rushed and simplified, like the author just wanted to wrap everything up neatly. This could have been a much better book, but for that.
I look forward to Roy's next effort.
sounds like a good read,sometimes the endings just don't end it all well though.
ReplyDeleteThis book counted toward the Canadian Book Challenge and the Global Reading Challenge
ReplyDeleteThis book does sound like a good read, although the rushed ending is a turn of, still might be worth checking out.
ReplyDeleteIt was Jules, and I'll definitely be looking for more from this author.
ReplyDelete