Headley, Justina Chen - Nothing but the Truth (and a Few White Lies)
Wow, am I glad that the recent trend is YA POC chicklit (is this a recent trend?), not depressing depressingness.
Patty Ho -- and don't get started on her name, because she's heard it all before -- is hapa, half-white and half-Taiwanese¹. As expected, she's angsty about this, but since this is YA POC chicklit instead of the aforementioned depressing depressingness, she manages to get some self-esteem at math camp, find out more about her family, and just have fun.
I don't think I can be rational about this book, because I spent most of it reading and flailing, thinking, "OMG! People! It is a book about me!" And not me as in "bookwormish shy girl" (which I have encountered more often), but me as in "Taiwan and Bay Area and potlucks and language divides and trying to figure out where you fit in when you're not quite one thing and not quite the other." I mean, it is not about me as well, since I'm not Taiwanese (am Chinese from Taiwan) and I'm not multiracial, but it is also more about me that so many other books that I've read that it is still a joy to find.
I hope someday just finding myself in a book won't be this rare.
But there is a math whiz who reads romances! And a cool Chinese kid from LA and interracial dating (and POC-POC interracial dating)! And! OMG! Headley distinguishes between Taiwanese and Chinese and among Taiwanese and Mandarin and Cantonese and I would love her just for that. But that is not all, because she's got a little in the book about the KMT and Taiwan and the 228 massacre and, and!
I mean, it is not happy material, but Headley doesn't make it the center of the book, but she also doesn't gloss over it. It's just there, part of Patty's background, and I grinned and grinned, because how many times have I done the entire "I'm from Taiwan. No, I don't speak Taiwanese. No, I'm actually Chinese, and you shouldn't call me Taiwanese because it's pretty politically fraught. No, my parents were born in Taiwan, but my grandparents are from China." And usually I do not mind, but it is just so nice to have a place where I don't have to explain.
And not just that, but there is Stanford and the Bay Area, and you can tell Headley has lived here before.
Patty, from a very white suburb Seattle, gets off at SFO for the first time and looks around, astounded at all the Asians, and I wanted to hug her and say, "Hi, welcome home!" (even though I am sure that is rather obnoxious).
The book itself is fairly standard YA POC chicklit, though it's got a strong focus on female relationships (friendships and family), and you can tell Headley's very dedicated to overthrowing stereotypes about Asians even as Patty hates things like her mom's lectures. I definitely snorfled in recognition when Patty's friend Jasmine rolls her eyes at the white girl in camp who feels out of place at an all-Asian sushi restaurant and pulls the "you eat what?" thing.
I can also see littlebutfierce's point about how the emphasis on the beauty of multiracial people can get a little overwhelming at times, but as she says, given that Headley's own daughter is multiracial, I don't blame her. The focus is definitely on empowering Patty, and while some parts are too slick (I wanted a deeper look at Jasmine and Anne and Auntie Lu), it's a fun and fast read.
I'm very glad I have her next book on hold at the library.
also, taiwan! bay area! a chinese experience that reads like mine as opposed to joy luck club!
¹ kate_nepveu has a good post on the Hapa Project and the terminology of "hapa" that I agree with, though this book uses "hapa" as a neutral term (the author does explain its history as derogative, but not its history as a word to describe Hawai'ians in particular and not Asian multiracial people as a whole). So I will use it this once and then use "multiracial" in the rest of the write up. Whew, that was a long footnote.
Links:
- furyofvissarion's review
- yhlee's review
- buymeaclue's review
- gwyneira's review
- magicnoire's review
Patty Ho -- and don't get started on her name, because she's heard it all before -- is hapa, half-white and half-Taiwanese¹. As expected, she's angsty about this, but since this is YA POC chicklit instead of the aforementioned depressing depressingness, she manages to get some self-esteem at math camp, find out more about her family, and just have fun.
I don't think I can be rational about this book, because I spent most of it reading and flailing, thinking, "OMG! People! It is a book about me!" And not me as in "bookwormish shy girl" (which I have encountered more often), but me as in "Taiwan and Bay Area and potlucks and language divides and trying to figure out where you fit in when you're not quite one thing and not quite the other." I mean, it is not about me as well, since I'm not Taiwanese (am Chinese from Taiwan) and I'm not multiracial, but it is also more about me that so many other books that I've read that it is still a joy to find.
I hope someday just finding myself in a book won't be this rare.
But there is a math whiz who reads romances! And a cool Chinese kid from LA and interracial dating (and POC-POC interracial dating)! And! OMG! Headley distinguishes between Taiwanese and Chinese and among Taiwanese and Mandarin and Cantonese and I would love her just for that. But that is not all, because she's got a little in the book about the KMT and Taiwan and the 228 massacre and, and!
I mean, it is not happy material, but Headley doesn't make it the center of the book, but she also doesn't gloss over it. It's just there, part of Patty's background, and I grinned and grinned, because how many times have I done the entire "I'm from Taiwan. No, I don't speak Taiwanese. No, I'm actually Chinese, and you shouldn't call me Taiwanese because it's pretty politically fraught. No, my parents were born in Taiwan, but my grandparents are from China." And usually I do not mind, but it is just so nice to have a place where I don't have to explain.
And not just that, but there is Stanford and the Bay Area, and you can tell Headley has lived here before.
Patty, from a very white suburb Seattle, gets off at SFO for the first time and looks around, astounded at all the Asians, and I wanted to hug her and say, "Hi, welcome home!" (even though I am sure that is rather obnoxious).
The book itself is fairly standard YA POC chicklit, though it's got a strong focus on female relationships (friendships and family), and you can tell Headley's very dedicated to overthrowing stereotypes about Asians even as Patty hates things like her mom's lectures. I definitely snorfled in recognition when Patty's friend Jasmine rolls her eyes at the white girl in camp who feels out of place at an all-Asian sushi restaurant and pulls the "you eat what?" thing.
I can also see littlebutfierce's point about how the emphasis on the beauty of multiracial people can get a little overwhelming at times, but as she says, given that Headley's own daughter is multiracial, I don't blame her. The focus is definitely on empowering Patty, and while some parts are too slick (I wanted a deeper look at Jasmine and Anne and Auntie Lu), it's a fun and fast read.
I'm very glad I have her next book on hold at the library.
also, taiwan! bay area! a chinese experience that reads like mine as opposed to joy luck club!
¹ kate_nepveu has a good post on the Hapa Project and the terminology of "hapa" that I agree with, though this book uses "hapa" as a neutral term (the author does explain its history as derogative, but not its history as a word to describe Hawai'ians in particular and not Asian multiracial people as a whole). So I will use it this once and then use "multiracial" in the rest of the write up. Whew, that was a long footnote.
Links:
- furyofvissarion's review
- yhlee's review
- buymeaclue's review
- gwyneira's review
- magicnoire's review